The Mount Pleasant City Council Tuesday night discussed adding to the scope of work for the wastewater treatment plant construction that is currently underway.

Chris Aylor of KSA Engineers, the consultants for the project, noted that the project was originally budgeted at $3 million but was awarded at $1.3 million.

Improvements under construction at the Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant - which is 20 years old - are designed to increase capacity, which was approaching 80 percent by the end of last year. State law would mandate a plant expansion at 90 percent capacity.

Aylor reported to council members on four potential changes to the project which could be added now because of the savings in the original bid.

They would be:

• Rebuilding the mechanical screens that skim floating material in the waste water the "influent bar screens";
• New instruments for the aeration basin;
• Improvements to the sludge piping system; and
• Taking the existing wastewater plant back-up generator and installing it the Mount Pleasant Civic Center.

The influent bar screens are 20 years old, original to the plant, said Aylor. It will take two service technicians to rebuild them, but that will greatly increase their efficiency, "they will be like new."

Council member David Huffman asked whether these improvements "need to be done now?"

"They should have been done five years ago," said Aylor.

"We wanted to keep the project under budget," explained City Manager Mike Ahrens, which is why the items weren't included in the original bid.

The new items - which would be added as a change order for the project - are now possible because of the lower construction costs. "It was designed when costs were high, and then bid when construction costs were at their lowest," said Aylor.

Under state law, ongoing changes can only modify up to 25 percent of a projects budget. "We would be coming in right under that level," said Aylor.

Ahrens said Aylor's presentation was to let the council know what is being planned, and that the council would have to approve the change orders at a future meeting.

The current improvements at the plant are going very well, said Aylor, "we've seen a huge reduction in sludge."