Staff: Reject Sunnyside Well bids as too expensive

MARYSVILLE – Engineering staff is recommending that the city reject all bids Monday night for the Sunnyside Well Treatment Facility Project.

MARYSVILLE – Engineering staff is recommending that the city reject all bids Monday night for the Sunnyside Well Treatment Facility Project.

Seven bids were received by the March 19 deadline. They ranged from $5.59 million to more than $6.5 million.

The city had planned to spend up to $4.9 million.Because the bids ranged from nearly $700,000.00 to $1.6 million more than projected, staff recommends allowing re-bids for the project.

The Marysville City Council will vote on that and another major project at its 7 p.m. meeting March 23 at City Hall.

The other big issue is the State Avenue Corridor Improvement project from 116th to 136th streets NE. It would widen the road from three to five lanes. The bid is expected to be around $4 million with work starting in late April and being done about the end of the year.

Mayor Jon Nehring doesn’t expect a traffic nightmare because underground utility work already has been done, and the two new lanes will be added on the east side of the existing lanes. So the loss will be just one of the lanes.

“There’s some inconvenience with all construction,” he said.

Getting traffic signal poles could delay the project.

“There’s a lack of supply and huge demand,” the mayor said, adding that could add two months to the project.

With the water project, Nehring expects construction to start in April and take a year. It would increase the city’s capacity to provide water from six to nine million gallons. The mayor said the city needs 11 million at peak summer periods.

“So, we will be able to cover our own water for a good portion of the year,” he said, adding the city will continue to buy water from Everett if it has to.

Nehring said the cost of water the city purchases is going up.

“It will allow us to maintain our rates,” he said, adding 2 percent increases would be common, rather than the 15 percent spikes other cities are seeing.

The city wants to build a 6,900-square-foot, two story water treatment plant along 71st Avenue near two city wells. The plant would filtrate minor levels of iron and manganese from the water. The overall goal is for the city to become self-reliant in its water system.

Also on the agenda, the council will consider agreements with two consultants on the project for $210,529 and $75,233.

In 2006, the city did a similar project near the Arlington Airport.

The council also will consider:

• Transferring the Marysville library to Sno-Isle.

• Extending the agreement on the North Marysville Regional Pond No. 2 Project.

• Extending the agreement on the BNSF Railroad Grade Separation Study.

• An agreement on auction services.

• An agreement on a gateway sign reimbursement.

• Accepting a shoulder improvement program.