The City of Lawrence has been awarded $400,000 from the Indiana Finance Authority for its lead service line inventory project.
Utility Supt. Scott Salsbery announced that to the Lawrence Utility Board during its regular July 25 meeting. He said he had learned about it that day during a video conference with Finance Authority officials.
Salsbery said the next step is for the board to approve a resolution accepting the grant funding, which then will be sent to the Lawrence Common Council for final authorization.
The project will allow the city to have an inventory of lead pipes remaining in the system.
Also during the utility board meeting, the board approved a $90,000 contract with VS Engineers Inc. to perform inspection work on the city’s upcoming Brookside Park Phase 2A water main replacement project.
Salsbery said the city’s engineer recommended that the city use a third-party inspector, rather than someone that’s involved with the design. He said the contract costs less than what had been previously budgeted for that service with primary engineering contractor HWC Engineering Inc.
The board also approved a contract amendment with HWC, increasing project costs by $41,000 to include video documentation.
“On a couple of our projects, there were incidents where there’s been damage to customers’ sewer laterals during the project,” he said, noting a lack of pre- and post-work videos, which made it difficult to resolve those issues.
The contract stipulates that the contract engineer is responsible for that documentation.
The board also voted in favor of awarding construction of the Brookside Park Phase 2A water main project to Midwest Paving LLC for $2.14 million.
