Good morning everyone. Welcome to the regular meeting of the city of
Charlestown Sanitary Super Board. Today is July 16th, 2026 and it is 900 a.m.
This meeting is being livereamed by city staff. We'll begin our meeting with the
pledge of allegiance.
I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic
for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for
all.
» Thank you. Let the record show that all board members are present as well as
clerk treasurer Donnie Kumer. And we have our attorney with us. Um oh my god
Brad. Sorry Brad. I almost said mo but I don't want to do that to you. [laughter]
» We have an agenda that's been provided. Entertain a motion to approve.
» I want to cut motion. >> Motion made by Michael Grayson.
» Second. >> Second by Nathan Grimes. Any edits to
the agenda? Hearing none. All in favor say I.
» I. >> I.
» Any opposed? That's unanimous. We have our standing business which includes the
approval of our meeting minutes from the regular meeting on July 2nd and the
executive session on July 2nd. I will note that there's one error in the July
2nd executive session minutes to be corrupted and that is that Bo Zeller was
the attorney present at that meeting um and so did Brad and we have our current
claims in our payroll allowance docket from June 28th to July 11th. With that
edit made, I would entertain a motion to approve.
» A motion to approve. >> Motion by Michael Grayson. Second.
» Second by Nathan Grimes. All in favor say I. I.
» I. Any opposed? That's unanimous. Does anyone sign up for public comment? None.
Uh, no old business. We'll move straight into new business. First up, we have our
operator's report. Tim Crowder. >> Good morning.
» Um, typically on the second meeting of the month, I'll have before you the
monthly reports uh due to some uncontrollable circumstances. That
report has been done. I did not get it in to Randy on before the day deadline
to get it to you. the plan was run totally in compliance during the month
of June. I will have that paperwork supported to you and Don at at the next
board meeting. Pardon me. So, but other than that, there has been a lot of
activity in utility uh primarily with staffing uh with we've got we've had
some additional staff that we've brought on. the labor's position that you that's
the that's board approved months ago I would say has been filled
uh with a new gentleman that started this Monday. So things are going well
with that. Uh we have uh with again with this board's approval and recommendation
and approval by the city council starting Monday. We will have an
administrative assistant. Uh we're very very fortunate to be able to have Don
might not apply this but not talking to you. [laughter]
» We're getting we're getting one of our staff members to come over and work with
us and we're very excited about it. So, uh the the So, we've gained two and a
half people. The one I haven't talked about is the half person yet. And trust
me, this young lady is not a half person. She come in on our work summer
work program and she has done a phenomenal job.
uh we have extended her a part-time position until she gets her full-time
status at her at IUS where where she's going to go and she's agreed to do that
for us. So, we're very excited. We made a lot of improvements in that area. Uh
the the construction continues at the plant primarily in the phase two we're
working on we're continuing to work on some issues that we're having. Uh with
that being said, unless you have any questions to the information I've
presented to you at this point, I have asked Mr. Jim Hagerty to uh attend with
us today, he has a couple of items and he'll he'll explain but understand the
presentation and change order are two separate items that we'll be talking
about today. So I'll entertain any questions you have on stuff that I've
given you. If no questions, I'll ask Mr. Hag to come up.
» Uh no questions. just um just a comment that we've done this um summer works
program now for I guess three years >> and um
» it's it's been it's been really great and I know sometimes staff can get a
little bit frustrated with having to bring part-time people in. It's it's
something we don't pay for. The Southern Indiana Works program pays for the
summer works program. It gives young people an opportunity to explore career
paths and we've met some really outstanding young people through that
and so Thank you to your staff for taking that young lady on through that
program and training her because it sounds like she's really been an asset
and it's gone. There's been a reciprocity there. She's learned a lot
from you guys and and we're benefiting from that for the plant. And as hard as
it is to find people that are interested in wastewater as a career, it's nice to
know there are young people that are still um just nerdy enough like us to
want to to be involved in that. So, thank you for you and your staff.
» You're very welcome. It's been our pleasure. It truly has. So, We can
welcome Jim up to make your presentation.
» Your presentations are on your tablets. I believe that everybody should see
them. So, >> yeah.
» Good morning. Glad to know that I'm nerdy.
[laughter] >> Well, I mean, I'm putting myself in that
» basket. I was up there to plan again yesterday. So,
» I love the interns we have with you and gives you a great opportunity to see the
interns and and get them interested in our field of interest. Uh, thank you.
This is my name is Jim Hagerty. I'm with Prime AE Engineering, formerly JTL. Um,
I got two items to discuss with you today. One is the additional sludge
disposal cost that we're incurring at the plant. Um, that is not included in
the change order six that we're presenting to you. It's kind of
anformational for future reference of why this will come to you at some point.
And then I have uh kind of a summary of the past change orders as well as change
order six to present to you today for consideration. So I will start with the
uh the sludge. You have a I guess a small presentation in your package. Um
so the the original contract scope of
services that we that we uh developed with the contractor was the city's
responsibility. We had two sludge storage tanks. They were that the city
was responsible for emptying those sludge storage tanks. We provided some
piping arrangement to allow them to discharge that to the new presses. Once
we got to that point, um, PAC's responsibility, the contractor was to
dispose of two feet of sludge in your bileac or your aeration basin. So that's
how we prepare the contract or bid this go to work.
Um, when we got to the point of looking at the sludge storage tanks, um, sludge,
which was the city's responsibility, there was a lot of debris. We didn't
have good screens in at the plant. There was a lot of debris, rags, applicators,
trash, and that type of stuff. And we were concerned with two things. One was
pumping it into the new dewatering equipment. That equipment is, you know,
the presses are $400,000. The pumps are half or 50 to $70,000.
So, we were with all the debris, we were very conscious of the issue of pro
possibly damaging equipment we just installed. as well. Um there was a time
issue with that. Um right now I think pace is in two plus months of trying to
dewater all this sludge. And the other concern and Tim you correct me was the
time. If the city did it, you all have additional responsibilities.
You had to go out if there was a sewer break. They would have had to leave and
we were concerned with delaying the contractor. So the decision was was to
pump all the sludge from the storage tanks. [clears throat] And I guess I
should have had a diagram of it because I don't know how familiar you all with
the treatment plant. They were the old u clar jester tanks that we destroyed.
That's where the sludge tank. So we ended up pumping it in
into the aeration basin and put it on pace's responsibility to uh look at at
uh processing it. There's a couple of pictures. Uh well, next down here on the
disposal options. So, we looked at several disposal
options. Obviously, one was with the city to do it. I think the cost of
disposal would have been in the $30,000 range.
» 3040 >> 3040,000
» disposal cost. >> Just disposal cost. But we're also
looking at the time for staffing to do it. We possibly would have needed other
equipment besides equipment they had. and typically pump rentals about $20,000
a month plus the time issue was out there. So, we looked at three other
options. Option one was the geo bags. That's what Tim has been using for many
years now to dewater sludge out of their base. They're just basically big bags.
We pump the sludge in. They're a mess material. They let the water go out, but
they keep the sludge in the bags and in water. Pace looked at portable presses
too to come in and use that. That cost was about threequarters of a million
dollars estimated cost. And then we looked at Lakewood Hall and that cost
was about a million dollars. So we ended up deciding to go with the geo bags
and a couple of pictures after that. I'll show you these here very quickly.
Um, excuse me. Those are the tanks with the
geo bags in it. You basically put them in a dumpster. You fill them, you let
them be water, and then they're hauled off.
Um, this picture here is of all the sludge that was in the basin in there.
And you really can you can see some of the debris in these basin, but these b
this thing was full of debris. Um, that's non-organic matter.
Then the final picture here kind of shows you you got the the uh they had to
bring in a a grain in there to mix the basin continuously. You see they have 1
2 3 4 5 six geo bags in there. That's how many they would fill at a time. And
they've been working on it about two and a half months now to try to get the
sludge out. and that we're asking for an additional time extension mainly related
to the time it's taken them to get the sludge out because they can't until they
got the sludge out they can't finish work on the phase 2 part of the project.
If I'm going too fast, let me know if you have any questions on that. And I
and I feel that they were very diligent in their efforts to do this work. That
Pace has been a good partner with us throughout this job
looking at keeping cost down. Initially, we thought the cost would be 700 70,000
to $100,000 maximum, but the amount of sludge in these basins and the
concentration was a lot greater than we anticipated. We had some experts come
in, look at it, give us an estimate on it. Um, uh, Blue Blue,
» Blue River Technology, >> Blue River Technology. They provided the
the bags. They came and gave us an estimate on the number of bags. And it
actually has taken us twice as many bags as we thought originally. And they have
been dewatered in well. They're not they're not sloppy with the sludge that
they've sent out. They've had good solids concentration. So we've been
watching it and we feel PACE has performed very well. So right now what
we're looking at is a potential change order down last change order um down the
road once they finish the work of about $175,000
the city cost and they're looking at about $350,000
in total cost and we've calculated the amount of sludge. the city sludge is
about 50% of the total sludge in the basin. Um actually about 2/3 of the
water but half the sludge. So we looked at it pace is very agreeable to that
that split. So I just this is kind of letting you all know what's coming down
in the future and why. >> So we are anticipating this $175,000
portion for the city will be a future change order saying.
» Yes. Um question. Are we going to is it scheduled to replace the liner of that
bileac as a retention basin once all this sludges out?
» Yes. >> Like it would probably be damaged in the
process. >> It's actually PACE has been very
diligent about it. They haven't um damaged the liner. We believe at this
point we got one other person to come in and look at it, but we believe that'll
be a credit to the city that we don't need to
» Oh, that we don't need to replace it. We don't need replacement.
» That's correct. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think we're all in
agreement that liner is in good enough shape to to do that to do that. So, PACE
is going to they have to do some welding. They have some cuts they have
to make into it. They're going to weld it. They're going to give me the total
bid package that they did at the beginning of the job and any remaining
budget they're going to credit back to >> when it's empty. I would like very much
to have that documented formally that it was inspected by you know the
engineering team and pace and the contractor um and wastewater staff and
that it doesn't at that time need to be in place. I would like to have that on
record just for reorder and everything else that we have going on.
» Yeah. Yeah. >> Uh that will be I think there's five
lights in the bottom of the basin this weekend this week. So we should be by
next week ready to go with that. But everything we've seen and I'll document
it, the liner looks in very good shape. >> Honestly, with the status of the plant
the way it was, I'm not surprised that there was,
you know, um, significantly more dried and debris
» in in both the CLA digtors and that you
» Yeah, Pace actually had to bring in what we call a chopper. They tried to use a
typical pump, uh, centrifugal pump to do this or PD pump, but there was so many
rags, everything was clogging up, so they had to bring in a chopper pump,
which is basically a pump with a chopper blade on it to grind this all up to get
it even into the bags. >> I'm not terribly surprised. Do you guys
have any questions on the sludge disposal presentation?
» Thank you, J. >> Very thorough. Thank you, J.
» Thank you. Um, next, uh, I will talk about change order six. First, I would
like to talk a little bit about
Tim's handing out a summary of all the past change orders that we've that you
all have approved, we've recommended, and you all have approved.
So, I've kind of kind of I've outlined where the of the previous change orders
had gone to what they were. So change order one that was just a change order
for updated vacant Davis vacant wage rates. There was no cost related to
that. That was just we didn't have the right amendment but the costs were the
same in that change order two. Um we bid this job prior to getting the final
comments from IDM the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. We had a
few minor changes that had to be done to a couple of pipes and that cost was
$7,361
95 cents that you all approved. Excuse [clears throat] me. Change order
three. This one was related to two items. One was a diffuser manufacturer
change um based on my recommendation to to the board and then cascade aation
system expansion. uh we felt that it was it was important to go ahead and build a
second cascade aation system to help with maintenance as well as future and
we talked about this and I think everybody agreed that it was a good
improvement. I will tell you the diffuser manufacturer while I won't go
into specifics I am so glad we recommended and you all did that. I have
another project out in Florida where I'm actually after three months having to
take all the aation basins out of service to redo the diffusers. Um so I
think this is providing y'all will provide you all real value by going with
a different diffuser that we recommended.
Um change order four two elements to that. There was the
portable sample samplers, the CCTV truck we purchased for you all, the Knox boxes
for emergency uh access to the plant and the power line relocation. That power
line relocation had two uh purposes. One was for the expansion of the road and
the the additional road that that River Ridge is going to do, as well as we were
getting it out of the way of one of our our entrances. it was in the way of
that. So that was $462726.52
for that. And then we had some electrical field order changes.
Always in these type of jobs when we get shop drawings in there always are new
updates and changes especially on electrical area. So we had to do some of
that. the wet weather pump station. We had to reconfigure that design because
the pumps that we had bid weren't going to work properly. So, we looked at that
and changed that. [snorts] Um, Indiana American Water uh wanted some different
changes to how we were connecting to their water system to the new plant as
well as paving concrete changes. That was actually a credit to the city. Uh
but those those costs were $22,115.13.
So those were design coordination changes that were done during
construction. Change order five for $447,237.74.
Those were related. $313,6867
of that was due to Riveridge Development Authority. They wanted to bring some new
pipelines in. They had a new pump station. So, we had to reconfigure two
16inch pipes plus >> right
» two 16inch pipes. >> They're they're going to 18. They're
18s. >> They're 18s. Yeah. Going to 18 in,
[clears throat] excuse me. and we had to modify our influent uh box
[clears throat] for all everything comes into with new valves and stuff. So that
was related to a request by River Ridge for uh new new lines coming into the
plant. We had the furniture package for $58,85010
and then the blower 2 wrapping that was $9,000
$75.13 and that was more um part of that was to
replace the windows that were bad, but we wanted the the blower building we had
kept it as a block building and this is a separate building that was existing.
Everybody wanted it to look the same as the other buildings. So, we issued that.
Part of it was some things that we needed to do to to eliminate some
windows and things out of the building, which was a plus plus to the building.
And then that one, we actually had some design changes as well as credit. So,
that ended up at $15,5549
of credits back. But there were some there were some ads and some credits in
that change order five.
Mayor you. >> Yep.
» So that's kind of where we are with the change orders today. We're presenting to
you change order number six for your consideration.
Change order six has uh several things in there. It has modifications to the
the feed line to the dewatering building. Uh we after talking with Tim
uh there's a real long line from the storage tanks down to the dewatering
building. We we wanted to put flushing connections on that line because when
when they don't use them, the solids can accumulate and dry out. And that's
something I we just didn't get in the design. And as we were building it, we
were like, "Oh, we need to have these flushing connections." Uh, we added we
made some changes to the Gordon RUP RA pumps to make them work better. Um, with
the head conditions that we had that was like 9,000
Let's see. That was $9,000 9,300
[snorts] uh $9,347.75.
Uh we on heat tracing um in the headworks and at the clarifiers
um we did not have the electrical portion of the heat tracing in the job
uh requirement. So we had to add that. This is water pipes that are exposed to
the atmosphere and I don't know if any of youall saw the pictures this winter
of of several inches of ice on our system. So we had to heat trace that uh
effluent samplers were relocated from the UV disinfection structure to the
cascade. We had the effluent struct the effluent samplers in the uh UV
disinfection structure but because of the depth of it and stuff it wasn't a
very functionable option. So we ended up moving it to the cascade air raators on
its influence box to make it more accessible.
Uh then again as typically there were multiple electrical field changes we had
to make to accommodate shop drawing changes as we get it in and those things
are just that's part of our part of happens electrical system codes all
those things change all the time and we had to update and those electrical field
changes were at $40,362.11.
And then the biggest one is the 138 day time extension. That's a no cost time
extension from PACE. And that's really related to the sludge. Until they got
the sludge out of the basin, they can't finish the phase 2 work because they got
to do some big digging around the bilac basins, the airrated lagoons. So that's
their request is for 138 days. I talked to Pace and Tim. I talked to Pace and
they're pretty confident that's the elastic extension they'll need um on
this project and again it was all related to the sludge
um here. So right now we're looking at a substantial completion um well that
didn't get changed May 16th I have to correct that. That should have got that
didn't get changed. But October the final completion
uh is October 31st, 2026 is what they're projecting at this point time to be out.
And unless there's some issues with excavation, I don't see why. All the
equipment's on site and ready to go. The electrical there, so we should be ready
to finish this project out in a short time frame.
» Some questions. >> Yep. Oh, please.
» Um, the digest line makes sense. >> Why should I keep it keep it clean? Um,
the pump modifications, I understand. Headworks heat tracing. I get that. And
even the effluent I was out there yesterday, even the effluent pump
sample, the relocation to the cascade makes perfect sense. It's much easier to
access. Probably safer even. Totally fine.
» Um, the the electrical stuff though. I have some questions on the electrical
stuff. Um I understand the orders issued to address the the equipment control
changes when we change equipment. If there's a change in electrical
electrical work, I understand that. >> Um especially with the the decision to
relocate the sample pump >> to the
» and then the the layout. What I don't understand is the
um conduit for power. I mean the heat
trace. I understand some of this. I don't understand because I I don't know.
I feel like it should have been accounted for, but then I heard you say
something about maybe a code had changed a lot. So, if you could address that.
» What happens with electrical? So, we got a lot of major equipment here. What the
electrical uh engineer does is we get ch we get proposals from the con from the
equipment suppliers, not the contractor equipment suppliers during design. They
develop their systems based on those submitts to us during design. Once we
get into shop drawings and I don't know if you all the difference between when
we design something, we reach out to the manufacturers that that that we're we're
looking at using using for pieces of equipment and we get information on how
the electrical system is, how the circuits are running, all that type of
stuff. And we design about around one system, but when you bid it, you have
multiple systems that are allowed to bid. If somebody else bids and also
these people are always changing electrical designs in their system
because of code, safety, different types of relays happen. There's just so many
electrical electrical design requirements, construction requirements
are changing almost uh I would say almost monthly on it. So
when we get shop drawings in from the contractors on actually how they're
building their panels, how do we need to wire it, there's always changes that
have to be addressed because of the difference of what we did during design.
As you got to remember, design was started almost three years ago. And now
we're into bidding and actually constructing. There's always changes and
most of these are related to I can get you more specifics on those. I'll be
glad to do that. >> Just curious because it is the heftier
of the >> Yeah. increases through here. So I'd
like to make >> Yeah. I think over over to Yeah. Wet
weather pump station. I would say we're about $100,000 to $110,000
total of electrical. I'm not talking about the the circuits and the heat
tracing, but >> we're about$1red to $120,000
worth of field orders on electrical. And I in my experience on a project of this
size that is well within norms for our projects.
» And then I have another question kind of un unrelated to this but also looking
forward to anticipating any potential other increases outside of the 175 that
you talked about from the sludge removal. When I was out there yesterday,
um, in the building where the hydronneumatic tank is, one of the pumps
was >> out and I asked him about it because it
was sitting outside and he said there was a manufacturer flaw with it that was
causing the bearings to go bad or something
» and that the one of the recommendations had been potentially to downsize that
pump and if that cost comes to us. So my question to you is if it's a it's a fa
if it's a faulty piece of equipment, if the bearings are going bad, would we not
have a warranty on that? Would we not want to um get the company that provided
it to replace that at cost rather than us having to downsize and then incur
additional costs? >> There's a couple elements to that. One
is the bearing cost. So the manufacturer is telling us that we're running that
pump um outside of preferred operational range. Okay.
» So that's one thing that we still in discussion on that. The when we designed
the plant, we looked at the plant water system needs for a 4 mgd facility.
Obviously we're a 4G facility, but we're not running in 4G,
» right? >> So what I'm thinking and we're still
we're not complete with this. So, we're talking with Penn, which is the
supplier, about bringing in a smaller pump so that we can more match the
existing flows today. Like right now, you're only running one screen. I mean,
one belt filter press. You don't need both screens.
» Those demands are 60 gpm. Um, so we're looking at the potential of putting a
smaller pump in to better match today's flows and then having the larger pump
for the larger flows. So you would keep the larger pump in place and install a
smaller. You wouldn't replace >> smaller and the small other pump is to
look at getting it repaired and then put that in as a spare.
» Okay. >> So for the future. So we're not there
yet, but it is something we're looking at. We're we've been talking with Penn,
which is the pump supplier for the past six weeks trying to figure out and we're
still waiting on a proposal from them. Okay.
» So when I get to that, we'll get with you on that. We're also having troubles
with the the colar um blowers. No, the uh Atlas Atlas cob blowers. So,
we're still tracking that down. That's all under warranty. So, we're working
with the contractor. Pace has always been pretty reliable. Also, we have some
control issues with the UV that's coming in
» that that is based on manufactured defect and they are going to rectify
that at no cost. So those are the three major issues we have in today I believe
with the phase one construction that we're still tracking down and coming up
with solutions and getting thing as well as the emergency power um uh paces
electrical missed all the surge suppression devices throughout the
entire plan. Um they are going to be starting to be installed.
» They are in They already are. Okay, that's good because every time you would
go off on emergency generator, Tim would have to come out and restart equipment
because it wasn't. >> Okay, that's
» Yeah. So, >> so where our original contingency was 4
million >> four Well, it's that's a hope that Yeah,
it was about 4.5 to 4.9 million. Okay. >> Uh depending on some of that cost I
think was for repayment of past bonds. So, I'm quite not sure, but it's
somewhere around the $4 billion was the contingency amount.
» So, with this change order and then even the future anticipated with this sledge
removal, we're still looking at having about 2.1 and some change remaining in
that contingency. >> If my numbers on the total contingency
are to correct, it's little confusing. I think D you know that it's a little
confusing. And the the percentage of this though is for 4.12% of the overall
construction cost. Everything to change order six.
» Yes. With change order six. And again like around 3.25%
of that has been for CCTV trucks things. And we're needed.
» Yeah. The things that you all needed which I'm glad we were able to get all
that equipment. >> Any other questions for Jim?
I get you. >> Okay. Thank you all. Thank you all for
being you heard all this and >> Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. Just a a couple quick comments. Uh going back to the sludge cost increase.
I concur with everything that Jim has said. Obviously
going through a learning period. If we haded to do over again, hindsight's
easy. We might do something a little different. But based on the options that
Jim presented, we all worked together on. We chose the best option.
» They just come with a cost. >> Why when you're dealing with something
of this magnitude and as old as it was, we we that's why we have contingencies
in place. >> Right. Exactly. Yes, ma'am.
» It's not like it's it's over what we anticipated in the sense of we have this
built in. >> Right.
» Okay. >> Great.
» All right. Um if there are no other questions, I'll entertain a motion to
approve change order number six as it was presented. That includes the
extension of time through. >> Yeah. And we're gonna before you sign
it, excuse me, I'm sorry, mayor. I'm gonna have to finish the substantial
completion date that it's May 16, 2026. So, I need to update that
» before you sign it. >> Okay. Okay.
So, with that amendment too, the actual paperwork is what?
» Make a motion to approve as presented with the amendment. Nation makes the
motion correct. >> Michael Grayson seconds. Any other
questions? Hearing none. All in favor say I.
» I. >> I.
» That is unanimous. Let's make sure there's not another extension needed
though. >> I'm ready to have this happen. Me, too.
» Okay. With that said, I think that's everything unless Brad has anything for
us or Donna has anything additional. >> All right. Just need a motion to
» make a motion to adjourn. >> Grayson makes a motion.
» I'll second. >> Gra second. All in favor say I. I
» I opposed. All right, we're journed.