News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Livingston approved the only bid received for its raw water intake system improvements on Wednesday night.
This consists of a new pump and valve installation for roughly $451,000. Engineer Greg Davenport said he had to make multiple calls to secure a bidder.
“I would have loved to have gotten more bidders but it’s just the way it happened this time,” Davenport said. “Sometimes on these unique projects, you only have one interested party and it’s certainly better than not getting a bidder.”
Davenport said that acting now was critical. Davenport said with the 28 week manufacturing time, the pump will not be installed until at least eight months from now. The city’s estimate for the project was $400,000 but Mayor Curtis Hayes said he met with the water department and the extra money is available to complete.
Davenport said he included an alternate option in the bid to replace the automatic screen that catches leaves and sticks when water comes in from the Cumberland River. However, he said he knew this would exceed the city’s budget but there are options in the future to include the screen in a work change order.
The screen and a miscellaneous $25,000 allowance were cut from the bid to get to $451,000.
“I would like to hold the screen in cue if Livingston is successful in obtaining some American Rescue Plan funding,” Davenport said. “It was initially talked about that the funding could be $1 million, coming from the federal government either direct to Livingston or through the state of Tennessee.”
Davenport said he heard at the Water Professionals Conference that TDEC has $1.2 billion in funding to match the funding that governments are allotted. Davenport said that based on what is known now, Livingston could use the money towards water or waste water.
