Ione – The Ione City Council last week approved the release of a “request for qualifications” from companies that might want to build the city a new wastewater treatment plant. The object is to fix the system’s ills, and appease the state. City Manager Kim Kerr said “we have to do something with the wastewater facility to get out from under a cease-and-desist order.” She said the council will inevitably have to decide whether it wants to make improvements on its existing system, “or build a whole new facility.” Kerr said one option, which the council approved, 3-1, was to advertise a “request for a statement of qualifications.” Then the Wastewater Committee, consisting of Mayor Lee Ard and Vice Mayor Skip Schaufel, and financial experts, will review and rank the submissions, and bring in the 3 top firms to participate in a “Request For Proposals (RFP).” Kerr said that could include presentations by the companies to the city council, on separate days. Kerr said the RFPs “will come back (as) 30 percent complete” projects. She said the companies will, in effect, say: “We believe this is a project,” and submit a draft plan, but do nothing until the city council says so. Kerr said the council “can contract with someone to analyze the financing in the statements of qualifications. She said the companies’ financial data is proprietary and will not be open to the public (unless the company is publicly traded). Staff said the request for a statement of qualifications for the project was already written. Councilman Jim Ulm voted against the request for a statement of qualifications, saying that the city would be better off phasing in the city wastewater plant upgrades. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.