Amador County – The Ione City Council voted Wednesday to plan on hiring a company to manage its wastewater treatment system, but it also deferred the decision on which company to hire. The council held a special meeting and heard presentations from 4 companies seeking to take over operation of the city wastewater treatment plant. “We decided to digest all of the information that the 4 presenters gave us yesterday and make our decision at our June 2nd meeting,” Councilman David Plank said. The council voted 4-1 to not hire a new “level 4” wastewater plant operator, and in doing so also “voted to have an outside operation” come in and operate the plant. Plank said council members are all anxious to get a new operator, but they “still have a little more math to do in our cost comparisons.” The city must look at costs. The council wanted to “take a few extra days to digest all of the information.” PERC is headquartered in Costa Mesa, Veolia Water Company is based in Pleasant Hill, Southwest Water is from Los Angeles, and Severn Trent is from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Plank said: “We have, without question, 4 of the top operation and maintenance wastewater treatment plant independent firms in the country, wanting to work in little old Ione.” He said they are all good companies, which makes it a tough decision. All 4 companies handle national and worldwide accounts. Plank said some city employees in the wastewater department may chose to go to work for the contractor, once a company is chosen. The bids came in at a range of $440,000 up to $544,181 dollars, including low bidder, PERC. The bids included a year’s contract, with proposed operations costs, and bids related to the collection system, the water treatment plant, maintenance and tertiary work. City Manager Kim Kerr said: “we are projecting our costs at $459,492 dollars.” She said part of the process is to see if the companies can operate the city’s system cheaper than the city does it “in-house.” 8 companies expressed interest and the 4 were chosen to make presentations. Each bid included $50,000 dollars in maintenance, including $30,000 for the wastewater treatment plant and $20,000 dollars for the tertiary system. Of the bids, Veolia’s was the highest at $544,181 dollars. Severn Trent bid $468,954; Southwest Water bid $447,000; and PERC bid $440,160. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.