Council awards waste water contract

In a special meeting last Friday, the Cathlamet Town Council formally accepted a contractor's bid for constructing a new waste water treatment plant.

The new plant will replace the sewage lagoons at the mouth of Birnie Creek with a new facility across SR 4 from Thomas Middle School. Construction should begin this winter.

In other business, council members agreed to seek re-negotiation of a contract with Wahkiakum PUD for supplying water for the Puget Island Water System, and they adopted a resolution to update emergency medical services billing policies.

Pacific Crest Construction, Inc., of Lynnwood was the low bidder on the waste water project at $7.86 million. The town's consulting engineers, Gray and Osborne, Inc., estimated the project at $8.77 million. Six other bidders came in under the estimate.

Tom Zerkle of Gray and Osborne said the firm had gone over the bid and found it to be acceptable; the firm recommended the council accept the bid, and council members quickly passed that motion.

Public Works Superintendent David Vik said the engineers and contractor would set up a preconstruction conference in mid-January to go over the project. Construction would start after that meeting.

The council adopted a resolution setting policies for billing for ambulance transport.

The resolution was a request from the Washington State Auditor after the audit was completed in 2010.

Mayor George Wehrfritz said the committee that developed the policies included himself, Council Member, and fire department officers Fred Johnson, Beau Renfro and Duncan Cruikshank.

"We're only doing what the state auditor said we have to do," Rendler said.

The policy covers billing procedures. The council will have to develop a separate policy for collection of unpaid bills and possible forgiveness of those bills for people who can't afford to pay.

"All on the committee have done a good job," said new Council Member Dick Swart. "This is a work in progress. People who work with this may find the need to make changes, and we should keep that in mind."

Council members authorized Mayor Wehrfritz to open negotiations with Wahkiakum PUD for changes in the contract for supplying water for the Puget Island Water System.

Wehrfritz said the contract allows an opening for negotiations every five years, and 2012 is one year in which negotiations could occur.

He said the contract is very cumbersome and takes up a lot of staff time in data collection and calculations of costs used to justify rates to the PUD.

"We can make the point that the rate we sell water to the PUD is too low," he said.

Council Members Rendler and Swart, both former mayors, supported Weherfritz's recommendation.

"I think it's a long time coming," Rendler said. "It has been a hassle year after year. It has been penny ante stuff. The town is not making money on the sale of water to the PUD."

Vik commented that the contract has served a purpose.

"You have two people (himself and former town attorney Fred Johnson) in this room who were there when the contract was written," he said. " What we come from was a time when we were throwing rocks over the fence at each other. The PUD wanted a cost based contract. Fred and I went through and worked out what parts of our system needed to be paid. It worked fairly well for several years. I was gone for several years (to a different job) and people added stuff. Now the calculation sheet doesn't match the wording in the contract."

With its current accounting and tracking systems, he added, the town can now determine costs of production and distribution of water.

"David has accurately described what went on before," Johnson commented. He added that the town now has 20 years of data that can be used to calculate and justify its costs.

"Pulling numbers out of the air was the problem 30 years ago," he said.

Wehrfritz said numbers are currently in dispute over 2011 rates.

Wahkiakum PUD last summer objected to certain items in the town's list of costs and requested more information.

Wehrfritz said town and PUD officials met and discussed the items, and PUD Manager David Tramblie subsequently said in an October 25 letter that the PUD would seek arbitration. However, on December 8, the town received a letter from PUD Attorney Tim Hanigan stating that the town hadn't presented an objection to a modification, submitted by the PUD, of the cost of production by December 5, the PUD would abide by the revised cost of production.

Wehrfritz said he was surprised by the letter, for he thought the PUD was going to seek arbitration, and he was waiting for that to be scheduled.

"We should have the town attorney review the rates and look for arbitration," Wehfritz said. "It has happened before."

"That's true, but it's got to be resolved," Rendler said.

"The difference in the cost of the water is probably less than the cost of the attorneys," Wehrfritz said. "It illustrates how inefficient this contract is."