According to City Engineer Craig Gray, Rice Lake Contracting is preparing the footing for the building, with precast wall panels expected to go up next week. Gray said work is on track and the facility should be operating by the end of January 2021.
The work is the first of two phases to build a plant near the Bemidji Regional Airport where the city's water wells are located. The second phase of the project will include expanding the building and increasing the amount of water it can treat at a time.
Once in operation, the plant will remove chemicals called perfluorocarbons, which were formerly found in fire fighting foams. The chemicals were identified several years ago in the water the wells draw from, and were likely from firefighter training which has taken place at the airport.
To meet state standards, the city set in motion a process to find the best option. At first, the city considered drilling new wells. However, because that option was found to be non-feasible, the city went forward with a treatment facility instead.
In total, the plant is estimated at $14 million, and earlier this year, the city made an $8 million request to the Legislature for bonding support. But after a regular session and two special sessions, no bonding bill was passed and signed by Gov. Tim Walz.
"Unfortunately, as a city, we've been dealing with these PFCs for many years and we have no choice but to commence the project and provide clean, safe drinking water," said City Manager Nate Mathews. "So, we pulled the trigger a few months ago on the project."
According to Mathews, should a bonding bill develop, the dollars provided to the city would be used to reimburse potential debt used for the front end of the project. If action is taken on a bonding bill, though, it won't happen during an August special session.
"The state of Minnesota bonds every year to fund projects," Mathews said. "In order to protect the bond holders from substantial position changes, state law prohibits Minnesota to pass a bonding bill in a window before and after their bond sales. So, if there's a special session in August, there won't be a bonding bill, although there could be another session in September."
Along with the facility under construction near the wells, the city's wastewater treatment plant has also been a topic of discussion when it comes to state support. There are two factors related to the wastewater facility's future, one is the plant's operational permit, and the other is an improvement project.
Gray said his office is still waiting for a new permit from the state of Minnesota, which could add new regulations or guidelines, subsequently leading to necessary upgrades. Until that permit is received, Gray said the city will operate under its current permit. If the city does need upgrades, officials have said they'd like to do them at the same time as other improvements are done. Fortunately, it's not as immediate of a need as the city's other project.
"We know there are some improvements we have to make to expand capacity, but we certainly have plenty of capacity now to handle anything on the horizon in the next few years," Gray said. "We want to add another clarifier there to take care of our capacity issues, but we don't want to start designs until we know about any new regulations coming down with a new permit. It's not a big deal to us, there's not a big rush on starting the final clarifier and we don’t start the final design work on that until winter or spring."
While the session was in process, the city was asking the Legislature for assistance with the wastewater treatment plant, and other needs. Along with its bonding request, the city requested the Legislature pass a tax bill with authorization to hold a referendum in November. If passed, the referendum would have created a 0.5% sales tax increase over a 10-year period.
Revenue generated from the tax would have gone to assist with the cost of the wastewater plant, along with the wells treatment facility and the Sanford Center. Opened in 2010, the Sanford Center is owned by the city and operated by the Ames, Iowa-based company VenuWorks.
The building includes a 4,373-seat arena with attached conference space and in 2019, the city budgeted $450,000 as an operating investment. Along with an operating investment budgeted yearly, the facility also needs several hundreds of thousands of dollars for capital maintenance.
According to Mathews, in a future session, a wastewater plant project may be another bonding request, while a tax remains the best option for the Sanford Center.
"That could be another bonding request, and depending on what happens at the Legislature, we could tie those two (with the wells project) together in the next session," Mathews said. "We've talked about a sales tax for the Sanford Center, and I'd presume next session we'll look at that again. We need a tourism tax to fund that regional asset.
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City forges ahead on water plant as wait for state support continues - Bemidji Pioneer
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