City awards well-blending project, accepts street plan

Five projects make up Hebron’s 2013 One and Six Street Plan which city manager Chris Fangmeier presented to the City Council Feb. 11. The regular meeting was postponed from the first Monday of the month.

Fangmeier said the top project, fixing the approaches on the First Street river bridge, needs to be addressed and soon. “First Street from Lincoln Avenue to the bridge is really taking a beating from all the truck traffic,” he said at the meeting. “We really need to get the approaches fixed.”
Fangmeier said the bridge was in good shape, but the road was getting worse every day which is why he made the project top priority.

Councilwoman Beth Goldhammer said she talked to the State Department of Roads about possible grants to help in the cost, but was told the bridge and road is municipally owned thus making the City completely responsible for fixes. Fangmeier said the project will cost $150,000 to $200,000.

The project requires the removal of poorly compacted sub-material and re-compaction with improved sub-material overlaid with concrete on both the north and south approaches. Combining the two approaches, the project is estimated to be 150 feet.

The Council will further discuss financing the project at the March meeting.

Other projects topping the list include paving Nelsen Street for one block between Lincoln Avenue and Jefferson Avenue for an estimated cost of $76,000; installation of a 175-foot guard rail on the east, north and west sides of the south end of a storm drain between CCCamp and the third ball field at an estimated cost of $5,000; paving Barger Avenue from First to Third streets at an estimated cost of $158,000; and the removal of old wood lighting structures from inside the corporate city limits and replacing them with metal poles and underground wire at an estimated cost of $40,000.

In other business, the City accepted a bid from Gen-Mech Contractors, Inc., of Lincoln, to blend two of the city’s wells to lower the nitrate level in one well.

City manager Fangmeier told the council last September that well No. 2, a minimal-use well, has always had higher nitrate readings than wells No. 1 and No. 3, adding that well No. 1 has always shown low readings of nitrates. He suggested blending the water of wells No. 1 and No. 2 to bring the nitrates to an acceptable level for well No. 2.

The project came about when well No. 2 had to be shut down last summer due to the high nitrate levels. The City will most likely need to locate a new well, a potential $500,000 project that could take up to three years to complete, but is looking at blending wells No. 1 and No. 2 as a temporary fix.

Fangmeier told the council in September an estimated cost for the well-blending project submitted by JEO Consulting Group ran about $100,000.

The council gave approval to submit the plans and specifications to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and granted authorization to advertise for bids contingent on DHHS approval.

Gen-Mech’s submitted and accepted bid at the recent council meeting is for $57,170. Work is scheduled to begin as soon as possible.