Amador County – Sutter Creek City Council on Monday approved an engineer contract extension to work toward a regional wastewater project in potential partnership with Ione and the Department of Corrections.
The Council also approved extension of a contract with Hydroscience Engineers for $36,000 to complete the wastewater master plans for the City and for Amador Regional Sanitation Authority. City Manage Sean Rabe said ARSA must also approve the extension, but if members did not give it the OK, the city would still pay the $4,000 or so extra, which members would pay in their share. He said the City, as an ARSA member would already be paying 85 percent of the contract.
Rabe said the contact increase was needed because of required meetings that were not known. When the contract was made, potential regional meetings with CDCR and the city of Ione were not anticipated. The city started meeting to discuss a regional wastewater plant two years ago and got nowhere. He said the city has been meeting with Ione and “those meetings have gone strikingly well considering where we were a year ago.”
Rabe said “we need somebody at those meetings.”
Councilman Jim Swift wanted people to know that “we’re not chasing rainbows” and are working on realistic endeavors. Rabe said it would be much better for ARSA and the city to be involved in the discussions.
Swift said the city is facing $15 million dollars in improvements at Henderson Reservoir, the sewer system storage pond, and that is just to continue using the city wastewater system as it is. If they partner with Ione, they can eliminate the requirement to repair Henderson Reservoir. Swift said it should be clear that it is beneficial to the city.
In public comment, Mimi Arata said she was excited about the possibilities of a regional plant, and asked what it would cost the city. Rabe said it was too soon to know, but if the agreement did do away with Henderson, it does away with a significant amount of city storage, and they would need to build additional storage.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
