Sewer Service Upgrade

The sewer system that serves the city was started in 1976.  With the establishment of the system a number of components were constructed.  The system includes a wastewater plant which is primarily a series of ponds, a pumping facility including pipeworks, and an irrigation system that discharges treated wastewater.  To get the wastewater to the treatment plant the city employs a number of lift stations.  

Lift stations essentially pump wastewater from a lower area to a higher area in the system.  A lift station involves a wet well that accumulates wastewater and generally two pumps that alternate pumping.  The pumped water goes to the higher sewer allowing gravity to move the flow in the system.  The pumps operate with the help of a control panel that houses electric equipment.  This equipment keeps track of pumping time, alternates the pumps and addresses concerns with downtime through an alarm system.  The alarm system is hooked up to a phone line with an automated dialer that calls public works staff in the event of a problem.  

As you can imagine these electronic systems become outdated and wear out.  They do receive periodic updates and repairs.  Sooner or later however the system needs to be replaced.  In addition the housing for this equipment also starts to fail making the components vulnerable to weather.   You can only apply so much caulk to try and keep the cabinets watertight.  Lift station number one controls the flow of all the wastewater in the city sending it through a forcemain to the wastewater treatment plant.  As such it gets more use than any other lift station in the system.  This lift station control panel was budgeted to be replaced this year.  

The city received quotes from two vendors for the replacement.  The high quote was received at $34,346.  The lower quote was from Quality Control & Integration at $22,890.  The city council approved the award of the replacement to Quality Control and Integration at their August meeting.  We had budgeted $40,000 for this effort.  

We anticipated that the replacement would be accomplished in late September or early October but as luck would have it, it was accomplished last week.  The process took about a day swapping out the old equipment to the new equipment.  The process involved cutting power to the lift station and removing the old control panel.  With the use of the city generator, power was given to the old control panel while it operated one of the pumps.  The other pump was hooked up to the new control panel.  Once that was operational the old panel was discontinued and the new panel was placed into service with the second pump being connected and brought on line.  Electrical service was returned and the new panel was made operational.  The system was tested and all systems were a go. 

The next project for this system is to install a by-pass structure at this lift station to provide for emergency service in the event we have a failure.  Currently there is no means to pump externally to the forcemain that feeds the wastewater plant.  We hope to accomplish this yet this fall. 

Classification and Compensation

In the State of Minnesota governmental jurisdictions are required to meet the Pay Equity law.  Pay equity was established to provide equity in compensation between male and female workers.  In essence this means that like work is to be paid similarly.  That may sound simple on the surface but how do you compare one job to another?  To accomplish this each job is reviewed considering a number of factors. 

These factors include:

          Education and experience to do the job

          The nature of decision making required

          The nature of problem solving

          The nature of relationships needed

          Mental and physical efforts

          Elements of the work environment

These factors are then rated using a point system and points from each category are added up.  These amounts are then posted to a wage scale to determine appropriate compensation for each position. 

 

The city council decided that a Classification and Compensation study should be accomplished.  This study will be done by David Drown and Associates.  With the assistance of NJPA the cost for this study is minimal.  Each position will be reviewed to classify it.  The classification process has been started and before we’re done a market analysis will be conducted to determine competitive compensations for each position within the region.  When this is completed the consultant will make a recommendation to the city council.  The recommendation will include where wage rates should be based on the classifications made and market analysis conducted.  The recommendation will then be considered by the city council.  The goal of the city council is to pay employees fairly and be competitive to attract quality employees.   It is hoped the process will be completed near the end of October.