At its last October meeting, Danville City Commission passed a few funding resolutions to aid in ongoing city projects. 

First, an amendment to the wastewater improvement project was unanimously passed, adding three additional needs and increasing the contract with HDR Engineering by $583,831. 

In a memo to the commission, Municipal Utility Engineer Earl Coffey said, “Subsequent to the completion of the evaluation, the project team has been working on the highest priority projects identified from the reports,” and that the Lebanon Road trunk line was added to the work list “resulting from new demand for services,” due to the industry developments in the area. 

Updated engineering costs for the Lebanon Road trunk line are $376,270. “As discussed, the project expanded significantly and as such the consultant obligations are expanded,” Coffey’s memo says. 

On the wastewater plant component, Coffey said the project was broken down into two phases, based upon the need for reliability and sludge handling making room for a future capacity upgrade. “The site is very constricted, both physically and hydraulically,” Coffey said.

He said the conclusion of the project team is that a second electrical building — originally conceived for the future capacity upgrade — will now need to be included in the first phase of work. “By doing so, the project will eliminate electrical rework in the second phase.” The additional cost is $27,000. 

There was also an “immediate need in the wastewater system evaluation,” Coffey said, adding that the Spears Creek Pump Station was last renovated in 1998 and has “reached the end of its useful life of 20 years.”

He said the city began preparing for this upgrade with the construction of the Spears Creek Lagoon, “which positively impacted the renovation costs for the station.” 

Coffey said the immediate effort of staff was to meet the schedule for development of the Lebanon Road trunk line, and that “the work cannot be avoided nor postponed as it is a requirement of the City Sanitary Sewer Overflow prevention program corrective action plan.” The design fee for the station is $180,561. 

 

EDA grant requires city matching, costs to consultant to prepare 

 

The commission also approved a resolution to allow the city to use the services of Hunter Consulting to help it prepare an Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant to hopefully be awarded 50% of the project cost for the Lebanon Road/Clarks Run trunk sewer project; the city will be responsible for the remaining 50% of the cost. 

Wednesday, Coffey said the EDA grant is only applicable for the Lebanon Road/Clarks Run project “because that project has a strong economic development component” attached to it. 

The total cost of the Lebanon Road/Clarks Run trunk sewer project, which is an “opinion of probable costs” assessed by HDR, is $8.6 million and some change, with the “soft cost” (design, permitting, contract administration and resident inspection) to run approximately $618,300. 

“The submittal process can be a significant effort,” Coffey said, in reference to applying for the EDA grant. “So Hunter Consulting chooses to break the fees out into two components,” which includes the application fee, plus an additional cost if the grant is awarded. 

Hunter Consulting’s fee schedule is as follows: 

• up to $1.5 million — $10,000 application fee, plus additional $15,000 if grant awarded; 
• $1.51 million to $3 million — $13,000, additional $17,000 if approved; 
• $3.1 million to $5 million — $17,000, additional $23,000 if approved; and 
• over $5.1 million — $22,000, additional $28,000 if approved. 

Coffey said, “The administrative side can change based upon grant size, which is why you see the sliding scale.” 

As far as a guess on the amount that could be awarded through the EDA grant, Coffey said, “The ‘grant award’ will be determined by the agency …” referring to the United States Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. “We will request as much as the agency guidelines allow, as determined during the application process.” 

Coffey said Hunter Consulting recommended estimating a $1.5 million grant amount. He said the final award must be matched by non-grant dollars by the city. 

 

Downtown Master Plan contract approved 

 

Bravura Corporation was selected in the recent past by the city commission in order to develop a Downtown Master Plan for the city. The city commission reviewed several proposals and evaluated them based on experience and qualifications of each firm. 

On Oct. 28, the city approved a resolution to pay Bravura $74,000, plus up to $3,500 in reimbursable expenses. 

According to a memo from Coffey, a “kick-off meeting” was planned for earlier this week between Bravura and city staff. “And we will be actively working to achieve project goals thereafter, including workshops, public discussions, etc.,” Coffey said. 

 

In other business 

 

• The city wound up saving money off the expected cost for a Main Street “streetscape” project. In August of 2018, the project — which renovated both sides of Main Street from Fourth Street to Fifth Street — was awarded to Bluegrass Contracting in the amount of $689,760. 

During the last commission meeting, City Engineer John Cassel said that due to deleted work, the cost was reduced to $655,488, resulting in a savings of $49,871. 

• The following board appointments were unanimously approved: Nine Kirland, Urban Renewal Board (to fulfill term of David Payne); Janet Hamner, Danville-Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau; Ann Young, reappointment, Housing Authority Board; William Jenkins, reappointment, Human Rights Commission; and Jeffery Baird, reappointment, Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning Commission.