By DAVE SCHULTZ
An Indianapolis firm is officially in charge of designing a new electrical substation for the city.
The Bluffton Board of Public Works and Safety formally agreed to a deal of nearly $1 million with Alpha Engineering.
Ben Huckaba, the company’s president, presented documents prepared by his colleague, Emad Sherif, that put the cost of the company’s services at $965,000. The company will do the engineering work on the substation and its transmission and distribution lines and will also supervise the construction.
Construction is expected to take between 24 and 30 months.
Huckaba said the company would work to fill temporary power if additional electric power is required by a Bluffton Utilities customer. “If there are interim solutions, we’ll identify those,” he said. “There will be interim solutions available.
The contract was approved by the three members of the Board of Works — Mayor John Whicker, Scott Mentzer, and Roger Thornton.
The cost did come up for discussion, but Thornton noted that the design for the city’s new water treatment plant was $1 million for an $11 million project. “This is in line with that,” Thornton said.
The board also considered the situation at 427 W. Lancaster St., where Building Commissioner Richard Triplett said the problem of excess junk on the outside of the house is matched by the situation inside the house — and that has created a separate issue.
Triplett declared the house unfit for habitation, which means that the resident who had met with the board back in May, Kurt Shorey, can longer live there.
The matter on the inside of the house is one issue, Triplett said, and the junk outside the house is another.
Triplett went inside the house Wednesday, Aug. 17, as part of an inspection. He said he had assistance from at least one Wells County sheriff’s deputy.
The next move concerning the house is to seek a court order requiring remedial work at the site. The special attorney for the matter, Adrian L. Halverstadt III, will shepherd the request for the city.
In other business:
• A review of the new city standards will be undertaken Sept. 6 when a representative of the Butler Fairman Seufert engineering firm can be present.
• Triplett said a house at 817 S. Williams St. has exceeded the timeline on its junk order. There is still trash and old siding in the yard. Further action is pending.
• Wastewater Superintendent Tony Fey asked for permission to create a part-time lab technician position. He has been unable to find a full-time employee in that position, and wants to hire a soon-to-be retired employee on a 24-hour-a-week basis. The board approved the request.
• Police Chief Kyle Randall brought the name of Zachary Zeis to the board as a new 911 dispatcher, and the board approved the hiring. Zeis, who Randall said has experience in the EMT field, will be paid a starting wage of $18.59 an hour.
• The board agreed to release the retainage money owed to Crosby Construction on the water filtration plant. The release of the $221,600 means that the company is, in essence, complete in the water plant work.
• Street Commissioner Tim Simpson brought two price quotes to the board for grinding of vegetation at the city’s compost site on Ind. 124 just east of Main Street. The board approved the quote sent in by Re:Source of Lima, Ohio, at $20,000. The other quote came from Worx Companies LLC of Fort Wayne at $25,250.
daves@news-banner.com
