WILLMAR -- The vote was unanimous by members of the Public Works/Safety Committee Tuesday night to recommend the Willmar City Council proceed with preparation of a facilities plan for a new wastewater treatment plant.
The vote came at the end of a three-hour meeting when members learned the plant may cost $80 million -- double the previous estimate.
"The numbers are ugly, but we have a moral obligation to move the plant out of town,'' said Steve Gardner, who offered the motion to recommend authorizing the consultants to proceed with the new plan.
The motion was seconded by Jim Dokken, who was attending the meeting for absent committee chairman Doug Reese.
Gardner was attending the meeting for committee member Cindy Swenson.
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Voting in favor of the recommendation were Gardner, Dokken, Ron Christianson and Bruce DeBlieck. The recommendation will be considered by the council on Monday night.
At Tuesday's committee meeting, engineering consultants with Donohue and Associates presented a report on estimated costs for building a new waste treatment plant several miles west of the city.
The new plant would replace the aging and failing plant in southeast Willmar.
Estimated construction costs exceed those in a 2000 facilities plan because material costs have increased 30 percent to 40 percent during the past five to six years and because new pollution control regulations for ammonia and phosphorus removal will take effect, according to Donohue and Associates.
Council member Denis Anderson expressed frustration about the increased cost. He did say that grants, which would be sought from state and federal sources, would reduce the cost to the city.
Anderson and other council members were invited to attend the meeting to hear the relocation report.
"We paid good money for advice. Now we have additional pollution control requirements. The price is up to $80 million. It's an incredible amount of money we are talking about,'' he said. "We need to look at other alternatives that lower the cost. I'm not at the point of accepting it.''
Christianson, who was acting committee chairman, said the council had decided to move the plant out of town. (The vote was taken in September 2004 after the council decided against a proposal to operate two treatment plants).
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"We made a commitment,'' he said. "Eighty million dollars is a lot of money. The cost is not going to get any cheaper. We need to give the staff direction.''
Several questions were raised about Jennie-O Turkey Store's participation in the project's cost.
Kenneth Sedmak, senior project manager, said Jennie-O will pay for the cost of its own pipeline to convey its waste to the site and will share in the facilities and cost of treating its waste. He said he empathized with what Anderson was saying.
City Administrator Michael Schmit said he is trying to characterize the project as a community project. He said Jennie-O has agreed to pay its fair share.
Schmit said options for moving the treatment plant closer to Willmar were studied but would save only $3 million to $5 million. Schmit said he remembers the public opposition that greeted his earlier suggestion of operating two treatment plants.
Schmit said delaying a decision would require time to determine an appropriate site, would result in the need to renegotiate the Donohue contract, and would require additional talks with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
