Published: May 27, 2009 10:21 am      

Council and mayor disagree on choice of engineer

Second meeting set for tonight

GREENUP — The city council will have to meet tonight to hash out its choice for a firm to oversee the next extension of the Greenup water line system.

What had shaped up on Tuesday as an unexceptional approval of an engineer turned into a contentious impasse between council members and Mayor Donna Hewlett, who had recommended a firm chosen by a screening panel.

The panel, which included Hewlett, council member Joe Mantz and county property valuation administrator William R. Clary, had chosen HDR Engineering, the Lexington firm that recently completed a hydraulic study of the entire Greenup water system.

No one on the council offered a second to the motion to approve the choice, effectively killing the recommendation.

The other firms included Howerton Engineering & Surveying of Greenup, E.L. Robinson, which has offices in several states including one in Ironton, and HMB of Frankfort, which offered its proposal in conjunction with Diamond Engineering of Greenup.

Representatives of all the firms except HMB and Diamond attended the meeting.

Council member Jim Doran complained they hadn’t been sufficiently involved in vetting the firms, and Lundie Meadows said local firms should get city business.

The entire council needs to study the proposals, Doran said. “We’re the ones who are going to have the final vote.”

“If we can do it locally, we need to keep it local,” Meadows said.

The panel, which had met for an entire Saturday to pore over the proposals, was convened to save time for the council, Hewlett said. “The whole purpose of the panel was to avoid the whole council having to do that.”

The council set a special meeting for 8 tonight because it has a deadline to meet. Whichever firm it chooses has to submit plans for the extension to the state by Friday.

The chosen firm will have use of an existing set of plans, approved by the state about four years ago, that it can submit by the deadline and then modify to meet present needs, said consultant Dennis Elrod of Atkins-Elrod & Associates. Representatives of the three firms at the meeting all said they could meet the deadline.

The water line extension is known as Phase 8 and will supply water to the Schultz area in western Greenup County.

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.