TRUMAN– Truman utility foreman, Brent Brown, went over details for the water tower rehab and filter plant rehab during the Truman City Council meeting on Monday evening.

Brown said that he recently met with Bolton and Menk and they went over a proposal that utilities had come up with in late 2018 and early 2019, before Brown worked there.

“At one point utilities had gone forward asking to rehab the water tower and filter plant. The project was for whatever reason not selected to move forward,” Brown said.

He said that Nero Engineering was selected at the time, though he’s not sure why as the city hadn’t had a history of working with the company.

“When I originally read the report I had quite a few questions. The total project cost at the time was $2.9 million to decommission the well downtown, install a new well by the water tower, install a reverse osmosis filter plant and the water tower rehab,” Brown said.

He said at the time the city didn’t qualify for some of the grant programs and low interest loans because of the rates. Brown pointed out they’ve been working on the water and utility rates over the last few years to get out of the red.

Brown said he understands Bolton and Menk was asked give a second opinion in the summer of 2019, but the city never acted on it. Brown said he recently went over it and Bolton and Menk’s report contradicted a lot of what was in the original report.

He said that he thinks the water tower is the top priority.

“Their opinion is that we want to move on it now because of changes coming in the paint. After 2022 they’ll be required to use a low VOC paint,” Brown said.

He said Bolton and Menk suggests the council move forward with design and bidding services, a lot of which has been completed. Ideally the city would go out for bids around Christmas, getting them back in early 2022 and the work would be completed over the summer and fall.

Brown said the estimate for both projects, the filter and tower, is around $1 million. He said he’s asked for 20 year bond information.

For the water tower, Brown said they have two options. It can be pressure washed and re-painted, or sand-blasted and re-painted.Brown said they can bid it both ways and when the numbers come in the council can decide.

He said Bolton and Menk suggests sandblasting, but understands there are limited funds for the project.

“It’s just patching it,” Council member Brian Nickerson said of the first option.

The water tower has been touched up but never re-painted in 22 years.

Council member Jake Ebert said, “This was a very important thing in 2019 and was thrown on the back burner.”

Brown said there’s no reason the council can’t do the water tower now and the filter plant in a year or two, but he said without the designs and bids, it’s hard to move forward because they don’t know what the true pricing is.

“We need to move on this. We don’t want to miss the paint,” said Nickerson.

The council voted to move forward with the design and bid services.