Wellsville Sewage Treatment Plant Construction Pre-Bid

A pre-bid meeting was held a week ago Wednesday, July 7, at Wellsville Village Hall. The purpose of the meeting was to explain the specifics of converting the sewage treatment process from anaerobic digesters to aerobic at Wellsville's Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). GG&J Engineers V.P. Bill Boyle conducted the meeting. Wellsville Village Administrator Jim Saracco was the only one present representing the Village. Representatives from plant operators United Water was also present.

The project to upgrade the STP has been in the works for sometime now. Funding the project got finalized earlier this year and engineering was finally approved by the Ohio EPA allowing the construction phase to be put out for bid. GGJ Inc. of Eastlake, Ohio, is engineering and overseeing the project. Funding for the project is coming from grants awarded to the Village by OMEGA and the Ohio Public Works (OPW) Administration plus a long term, low interest loan from OPW. Included in the project is the installation of telemetry at the 20th St. pump station which will allow the plant operators to monitor activity at the station.

There were six prospective bidders at the Pre-bid meeting. According the the GGJ web site nine different companies have acquired bid packages. Companies represented at the meeting were RLM Electric, W.E. Downie, Pusateri Excavating, Cattrell, James White Construction and Synagro.

Boyle advised the bidders that the operation of the STP will be on-going during the construction. There are currently two anaerobic digesters at the plant. One will be empty to allow the construction to begin while the other will be used to keep the plant going. Once the first aerobic digester is on-line sludge from the remaining anaerobic digester can be transferred to the new one for processing. It was stressed that the operation of the plant can not be interrupted. Boyle also advised a schedule of construction activities will be required for the day-to-day operations of the plant.

Boyle also advised the potential bidders that an addendum will be issued to change the transformers at the plant from 25 KVA to 50 KVA ones. The demand for the increased amount of electricity is necessary to operate the aerobic digesters.

Once the project is completed the stench from the STP plant should be eliminated. Bids will close Wednesday, July 14, with a bid opening scheduled at 11 A.M. at Wellsville Village Hall.

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