City Beat: Council considers $32M wastewater project

Springfield City Council is in discussion to award a $32.4 million biosolids treatment improvements project to Crossland Heavy Contractors Inc. of Columbus, Kan.

The request for the three-year project at the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant involves a $3.2 million amendment to the fiscal 2017 budget of the city’s environmental services department, or roughly 10 percent of the overall project, to cover contingencies and construction management services.

Errin Kemper, assistant director of environmental services, presented the project to council members at their July 25 meeting.

“This project is an expansion of our current anaerobic digester and is needed to meet some regulatory obligations,” he said. “This expanded facility also will create a great deal of free biomethane gas.”

Kemper said the project would include two energy generators designed to convert the gases into electricity.

“Once on line, this project will make enough electricity to provide about half of the treatment plant’s energy needs,” he said.

Project plans also call for improvements to the hauled waste and loading station.

“This is where folks that are bringing hauled waste in on a truck have a better place to unload, and we can accept more materials that way,” Kemper said, noting planned improvements to nitrification tanks and a processes building.

Councilman Ken McClure, who was sitting in for Mayor Bob Stephens, asked Kemper to elaborate on the methane gas portion of the project. He said the anaerobic digestion process involves all organic matter flowing through the sewer systems that is not clean water and other materials like fats, oils and greases that are brought in.

“Any organic matter goes into a large anaerobic digester and there it sits for a period of 30 to 45 days,” Kemper said. “Just like your compost heap in your backyard, as that organic material breaks down, it deteriorates into methane gas. It makes a lot of methane gas – enough methane gas to produce several hundred thousand dollars worth of electricity in a year.”

McClure expressed his approval of that portion of the project, noting Springfield’s Northwest Wastewater Treatment Plant has had success with a similar system.

The discussion then moved to whether the city examined Occupational Safety and Health Administration filings to see if Crossland Heavy Contractors – a sister company of Crossland Construction Co. Inc. – has any violations.

Kemper said the contractor had 13 documented inspections 2006-10.

“Of the 13 documented inspections, there was one violation resulting in a fine of $1,313,” he said.

Councilman Craig Hosmer said information given to him by unions in Springfield indicated differently.

“They say there have been, since 2002, 43 OSHA violations, and they’ve been fined almost a quarter of a million dollars for OSHA violations, including fatalities,” he said.

Hosmer said the city should examine those claims before council votes on the contract in two weeks.

Quarry Town
Developer Matt O’Reilly of Green Circle Projects LLC seeks council approval for a mixed-used development on 11 acres in Galloway Village.

A bill for public hearing presented to council would rezone 4018 and 4022 S. Lone Pine Ave. from a general retail, general manufacturing and single family residential area to make way for office and commercial buildings, single-family, duplex and multifamily residences, and self-storage units.

“We reviewed this against the Multi-Family Development and Location Design Guidelines and found it to be consistent and determined a cap of 12 dwelling units per acre across the entire 10.8 acres,” said Mary Lilly Smith, the city’s Planning and Development director.

She said a traffic study also would be required.

O’Reilly, who’s known for developing the $22 million Farmers Park and Two Rivers Bike Park, said the proposed development is called Quarry Town. Additional project elements include bike trails, Tesla charging stations, solar panels and crosswalks on Lone Pine. He told council members the project’s first phase is estimated to cost $12 million. After the meeting, O’Reilly declined to disclose the full planned investment.

Property owners listed in the bill are Kaonashi LLC and Lone Projects LLC, but O’Reilly said after the meeting the land has been acquired and is controlled by Green Circle Projects.

The Quarry Town property is down the road from the recently developed Township 28, a $12 million apartment complex with 138 units owned by TLC Properties.

In regards to O’Reilly’s Quarry Town, McClure asked city officials to address flooding in that 4000-block of south Lone Pine.

“The street is in a flood plain, so there are flooding concerns,” said Public Works Director Dan Smith. “There’s not a whole lot that can be done with that.”

Jessica Pearson, Green Circle’s marketing director and development assistant, said the developer met with representatives from the city, the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks, the Missouri Stream Team, Tri-State Water and the Missouri Nature Conservancy to discuss the current public improvement plan and to identify opportunities for stormwater management.

“Our development team voluntarily adopted the new stormwater guidelines in the plan development and included them in our PD application,” she said.

Hosmer followed with a question about the project using tax abatement. O’Reilly estimated it could be $60,000 or more per year, and he’d furnish a report to council with actual numbers.

Council plans to vote on the bill on Aug. 8.

Local preference bill
Council discussed giving local preference to companies in bidding situations for city contracts.

Questions arose a few meetings ago during council’s deliberation of an auditing services contract. In the last meeting, council decided to move forward with a slightly lower bid by Kansas City-based RSM US LLP instead of extending the five-year contract with Springfield-based BKD LLP.

Springfield attorney Jim Meadows said he thought it pertinent to discuss local contract preferences in a clear manner. He said the bill makes sense because of the economic benefit and because it levels the playing field for businesses in the community.

“This isn’t just a situation of trying to give benefit to local businesses, it’s a situation of trying to deal with some of the realities in contracting,” said Meadows, who previously lobbied before council in favor of renewing BKD’s auditing services contract.

Meadows said supporting local businesses that provide a competitively priced service, has the same, or more benefit for Springfield than an out of town contractor would.

As the first-reading bill currently is written, City Manager Greg Burris said commodity bids are based on price, but professional services are based on quality.

Public Works’ Smith cited the example of architects and engineers.

“There are state statutes that very specifically lay out how you choose those firms,” he said. “The idea is to make sure that you pick very qualified firms to do the work, because you consider the consequences. What they do has a very significant impact on the well-being of the city, including safety.”

Using a scoring system, Smith said the statute allows businesses closer in location to receive extra points based on proximity. The process then moves to price negotiation, with the highest-scoring firm first at the table.

The bill is scheduled for a vote Aug. 8.