BRENHAM CITY COUNCIL APPROVES CONTRACT FOR BURLESON ST. CROSSING REPAIRS

  

Work will soon begin at a creek crossing in Brenham that has seen storm damage several times over the past few years.

The Brenham City Council Thursday accepted a $1.07 million bid from Angel Brothers Enterprises to replace the crossing at Burleson Road and Little Sandy Creek. The crossing was replaced after historic flooding in May 2016, and Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

The project involves adding a bridge structure to the crossing, and adding rip-rock to the channel sides for increased protection.

It also includes adding “wing walls” to the bridge, demolishing current infrastructure, relocating two water lines, adding culverts in a minor tributary along the road, and asphalt improvements to tie in the bridge structure.

Public Works Director Dane Rau said the project will be funded at a 75-25 percent cost share through FEMA, with the city picking up the 25 percent. He also said the original estimated cost submitted to FEMA totaled $895,000, so the city does intend to perform deductive change orders to the bid to get the project closer to the projected amount.

Rau noted that this is not the first time the city has worked with Angel Brothers.

 

Once the contract becomes effective, Angel Brothers will have 120 days to complete the project. Rau said the project will ideally begin in mid-November.

City Attorney Carey Bovey added that there is language in the contract that says, if Angel Brothers exceeds time allotted for the project, they will be fined $250 a day for as long as the project goes unfinished.

Also in session Thursday, the council approved changes to the city’s sanitary sewer rates for industrial customers, by adjusting industrial surcharges for wastewater rates. The surcharges are in place to adjust monthly billings to reflect changes in strengths and flows of industrial customers who are part of the city’s pretreatment program.

The rates being changed are the unit charges for Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS). With the changes, the respective rates are being lowered to $0.001536 and $0.001457, a decrease of $0.002918 and $0.002102.

Customers are sampled twice per month to get an average for BOD and TSS, which are then multiplied by flow volume and the unit charge.

The new rates set a minimum monthly surcharge at $20,000 and maximum monthly surcharge at $33,000.

Assistant City Manager of Public Utilities Lowell Ogle said the intent of the rate is to recover actual cost increases or decreases for flow treatment. He said, while the rate change may look like a reduction, it will provide a minimum to ensure fixed costs are covered, while avoiding over-collecting from customers.

The council also:

• Authorized public infrastructure improvements in the Heritage Oaks subdivision.  Development Services Director Stephanie Doland said the work consists of water, storm water, and sewer enhancements.
• Approved a request from the Washington County Appraisal District to use prior year’s accumulated funds for a new fleet vehicle.  It also nominated John Schaer, Charles Gaskamp, Johanna Fatheree, Leslie Boehnemann, Jr., and Joe Antkowiak for election to the Appraisal District Board of Directors.
• Approved amendments to the human resources policy manual.
• Proclaimed October 6-12^th as Fire Prevention Week, and October 24^th as Think Pink Thursday.