Oregon council OKs bid for sanitary sewer project

         Oregon City Council on Monday accepted the $842,923 bid of Performance Pipelining, Inc., of Ottawa, Illinois, for furnishing labor, materials and equipment for the sanitary sewer rehabilitation project – trunk sewer and miscellaneous lateral improvements.
        “Performance Pipelining was the sole bid,” said Public Service Director Paul Roman. “They are an excellent company. They have successfully completed three of the last four projects in the city. Their last project was just completed in South Shore Park. We certainly recommend them for the work.”
        The project is intended to improve the overall condition and quality of the existing sanitary sewers in various areas of the city. The existing sanitary sewers, ranging in size from 8-inch to 24-inch diameter, are deteriorated and are in need of lining. Some sewers have been lined previously and need cleaning to remove settled debris in the pipe. The project will use a cured-in-sanitary sewer lateral pipe by trenchless cured-in-place lining in various areas. Sanitary sewer manholes will also be lined.
        Roman said the most difficult work will be the sewer on Navarre Avenue.
        “It’s a 24-inch line. We’re actually lining one section that is under I-280, which is a lot of work. There is some deep cleaning. Some of these sewers are 35-feet deep, too deep for our equipment to perform. A lot of that gets done before you line it.”
        The project will occur through the next six months.
        Also at the meeting, council:
        •Renewed the city’s liability insurance through the Ohio Plan, administered by Hylant Administrative Services, LLC. The Ohio Plan renewal for the period Oct. 15, 2022 through Oct. 15, 2023, has an annual premium of $231,914, an increase of $19,108 from the 2021-2023 premium payments. The increase is due to higher property replacement values, more city vehicles, and construction costs. Overall inflation was also a contributing factor.
        •Increased the pay range for the positions of police chief and fire chief. The city identified a need to revise the pay range schedule of the police chief and fire chief to create parity with other jurisdictions and assist in retaining current employees and attracting future employees. Updating the pay range schedule would enable the city to maintain and preserve a high standard of safety services, according to Mayor Mike Seferian. “We have been adjusting our pay scale for many of our department heads to compete with surrounding communities,” he said. “In negotiations for a new fire chief, we did negotiate that new pay scale. Our system here has the fire chief and police chief with the same rate. The new scale starts with step one at $116,000 per year. Each step has a $2,000 increase. So they would start at step one, and take those steps up to the final step of $124,000. We had to do this today due to the upcoming appointment (of a new fire chief).” The city will also review adjusting the pay range for other positions when the 2023 budget is discussed. “We’re looking at all the positions. That’s why we thought it was more appropriate when we are setting up our budget for the 2023 calendar year. So we’d be looking at the steps and competitive nature in the surrounding communities. As you know, a lot of communities are taking other people’s employees. We actually did it ourselves. We’re trying to retain them,” he said. Councilman Terry Reeves said he wanted to make sure the city was also being fair to the assistant chiefs with a pay range increase. “I just wanted to bring that up to make sure we’re competitive so they won’t want to leave, either,” said Reeves.
        •Approved an agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) for funding from the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) for the engineering design, right-of-way acquisition and construction of the Munding Drive and Dearborn Avenue reconstruction project. The city received $400,000 in grant funding from the FHA through the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) for reconstructing Munding Drive and Dearborn Avenue between Navarre Avenue and South Wheeling Street. “Those are service roads along I-280 between Navarre and Wheeling Street,” said Roman.
        The project will include signage, pavement markings, ADA curbs, ramps and related work. The city also received $300,000 in grant funding through the Ohio Public Works Commission for the construction of the project.
        The project will go out to bid next February, said Roman.
        “We will be working on it all summer and next fall,” he said.