By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
It was a short 18-minute work session for Hays city commissioners Thursday night.
The two agenda items for discussion were presented by Jeff Crispin, director of water resources.
Crispin presented a recommended bid award for the 2022 manhole rehabilitation program. The city is in its fifth year of the program, averaging about 50 manholes each year.
This year, the project will perform rehabilitation on manholes that were found to have crumbling or soft concrete, according to Crispin. The 50 manholes are located south of 6th Street between Elm and Milner.
The low bid of $83,558 was submitted by Mayer Specialty Services, Wichita.
Due to the favorable bid, Crispin recommended awarding the project in an amount not to exceed the budgeted amount of $125,000. Additional manholes for rehabilitation have been identified to the north of the project area.
"They did our work in 2019, 2020, and 2021," Crispin said, "and the work has been excellent."
The project includes lining manholes with a cement-based mix that includes an alkaline-resistant fiberglass reinforcement called MS-2A. A strong geopolymer product will also be used in higher corrosion environment manholes.
There are approximately 2,400 manholes in Hays. The city plan is to rehab about 50 manholes every year in a 50-year schedule.
Also presented was a low bid recommendation of $26,426 by Sidner Environmental Services, St. Louis, for a replacement water production soda ash feeder. The current feeder, which helps control alkalinity in the water softening process, is 48 years old.
Both bid award recommendations will be voted upon at the city commission's regular meeting next week.
A discussion of a proposed city "streatery" policy was postponed.
Vice-mayor Michael Berges and commissioner Shaun Musil were absent from the work session.