Snowflake Town Council Approves Street Project Engineering Contract

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By Naomi Hatch
    For many years, residents on Fourth North and Second East streets in Snowflake have been told their street would be paved, Public Works Director Gary Fenstermaker advised the Snowflake Town Council March 11. He noted that citizens have come to previous councils and town managers, and were told they would have their street paved.  
    “I was the bad guy,” Fenstermaker said, explaining that there was a problem with the water lines so they couldn’t pave the road. They made water line improvements two years ago, so this was put back in the capital improvement plan, and is included in the 2007-08 budget.  
    Fenstermaker told the council he was seeking approval for the engineering of the project, noting, “It’s a small project” of two blocks. He said they anticipate it won’t take anywhere near 56 days, so he would like approval to have the engineering completed and go to bid by the end of June.
    He asked Tetra Tech Inc., formerly Murphy Engineering, to give him a proposal for engineering serv-ices and explained that according to code, they don’t have to bid professional services.  Fenstermaker said he would like to have this project completed during this fiscal year and felt the proposal was fair.
    Mayor Kelly Willis commented that the council is very interested and wants to do whatever it can to get the Seventh South project going.
    “We keep bringing this up,” said the mayor. “I know it’s in your mind, but I want it in your heart.”  
    Fenstermaker explained that he turned his 2008-09 fiscal year budget into Town Manager Paul Watson that day and this project was included.  He noted if the council approves the budget, Seventh South will be done next year.
    Vice Mayor Kerry Ballard brought up Third South, which is a through street, not a dead end like the Fourth North and Second East project, noting, “We get a lot of flack when it’s a dead end road on one end and the other is one that’s used a lot.”  
    Fenstermaker replied, “Fourth West was a priority with the last town manager.”
    The council unanimously approved the proposal from Tetra Tech Engineering in the amount of $8,970 for engineering services on the Fourth North and Second East street project.
    In other action March 11, the council:
    * Unanimously approved the purchase of a new polymer pump at the wastewater treatment plant for $5,750 from Phoenix Process Equipment.  
    Fenstermaker said that they are experiencing problems with the polymer pump on the belt press at the wastewater treatment plant, and lead operator Gary Leach recommended that the pump be replaced before it completely fails. The only company that has this part is Phoenix Process and Equipment, so he requested they waive the bidding process.  Fenstermaker explained that the pump provides a consistent flow of mate-rial to process the sludge through the belt press.  
    * Unanimously approved the purchase of the new Sensus water meter reading system for $5,880.64 and waived the competitive bidding process based on the fact that Dana Kepner is the area distributor for Sen-sus meters and equipment.  
    Fenstermaker explained that they will be purchasing a handheld unit, a wand and software. He said that they no longer make replacement parts and the software is outdated.  He noted that about 10 years ago they purchased a new meter reading unit, which increased revenue for the town.  
    Councilman Charlie Hendrickson, who knows about reading meters, said, “It is commendable that one meter reader can read all the meters in town, very fantastic.”