NORTH BRUNSWICK – The Township Council has moved one step closer to improving its water treatment plant, although bids for the project came in more expensive than expected.
At the council workshop meeting on Monday, Kelly O’Connor of CH2M HILL, the engineering firm handling the treatment plant, said the results of the bid process were received last week. Stone Hill Contracting came in as the low bidder, with a project cost of $16.1 million, which she said was lower than the engineer’s estimate.
However, the township only has $15 million available in an infrastructure trust fund. BusinessAdministrator Robert Lombard said CH2M HILL had built several deductions into the bid in anticipation of an exceeding cost, but that the main component is the removal of a $600,000 solar hot water system. The issue lies in the township moving toward environmental sustainability over the last few years, but that the solar heating system would cause an $80,000 increase in debt service costs per year.
Lombard said he is in the “middle of the road” as to his opinion of which route to take, because the solar panels “speak to the philosophy the mayor and council have strongly embraced.”
O’Connor said that the solar panels generate more electricity than pulling off of PSE&G’s lines, and that rebates could possibly be received from the Board of Public Utilities if energy saving measures are used, although the rebates are usually given after the construction of the plant. She also said that if there is a rebate, the payback time would be seven years, but without a rebate, the payback time would be 11 years.
“It’s possible to get some dollars back but even if we don’t … I think we’re doing the right thing for down the road,” Councilman Bob Davis said of the solar heating system.
In early 2006, a nine-month study of the township’s water supply determined that rehabilitating the existing plant will be more cost effective than purchasing water from surrounding towns. The North Brunswick plant was built in the 1960s and upgraded in the 1980s and 1990s after suffering from a fire in 1989. Currently, 6 million gallons per day are produced, but due to age and permit requirements, the equipment has exceeded its useful life. The gravity filters implemented in the 1960s and the pressure filters constructed in the 1990s present the most concerns about technical and functional obsolescence, Lombard said at the time.
The council members said they basically want to look into funding options first, namely rebates from the Board of Public Utilities. They will also evaluate if other items can be deducted from the bid.