Colfax agrees to repair sewer utility fine screen for $16,500
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — At $16,500, repairing the sewer utility fine screen in Colfax is a necessary repair, but if the “basket” must be repaired, the cost will increase to nearly $35,000.
The Colfax Village Board approved repairing the fine screen, to include the brush with all fasteners and a new gearbox with a motor, at the March 27 meeting.
The fine screen is a unit located inside the lift station on state Highway 170 on the west side of Colfax.
To make the repairs, the vendor, Energenecs, must use a crane to lift the entire unit out of a 20-foot pit.
The fine screen was repaired last in 2007, said Don Logslett, one of the village’s employees who is certified as a sewer operator.
The unit has been having trouble the last few years. The brushes are bad, the wear bar is bad, and the motor and gearbox have been squealing and need to be replaced, he said.
Option 1, to replace the brushes and the wear bars at a cost of $4,036, would be the bare minimum that should be done, said Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer.
The baskets rarely wear out, but until the basket is pulled, no one will know if it needs to be replaced, Logslett said.
Whether the basket wears out depends on how acidic the sewage is, he said.
The gear box and motor have been experiencing problems, and as long as the gear box and motor are out, those might as well be changed, Logslett said.
Is the water and sewer utility account healthy enough to be able to handle paying for the repairs? asked Gary Stene, village trustee.
“Yes,” Niggemann said.
The most sensible thing would be to replace the brushes and the motor and gear box and fix the basket if it needs fixing, Stene said.
The cost of the basket is listed as $14,310.
The baskets have to be made if they must be replaced, so it could be a while before the basket is back in the pit and the fine screen is put together again, Logslett said.
The cost of the repairs and replacements includes $1,800 to rent a crane.
The estimate provided for the village board only included the crane in Option 3, so village board members were confused about exactly when the crane was needed and wondered if it was only needed for Option 3.
The entire unit has to be lifted out of the pit with a crane, said Rand Bates, director of public works.
A crane would be needed twice — to lift the unit out, and then if the basket must be replaced, to bring a crane back to Colfax to put the unit back when the new basket is ready to be installed, he said.
Replacing the basket would take six to eight weeks.
If the brushes, wear bars, gear box and motor are the only repairs needed, then the repairs are two to four weeks out, Bates said.
Crane rental on the estimate is listed at $300 per hour and is billed for actual time, with an estimate of eight hours.
Eight times $300 is $2,400, so it is not clear why the crane rental is listed on the estimate for $1,800, which would be six hours instead of the estimated eight hours.
Labor is listed on the estimate at $135 per hour each for two technicians.
The travel expense for one technician is listed at $85, while the travel expense for a second technician is listed at $160.
The Colfax Village Board voted unanimously to complete Option 2, which includes the brush, wear bars, gear box and motor.
Voting in favor of the motion were Village President Jody Albricht and Village Trustees Margaret Burcham, Carey Davis, Anne Jenson, Jeff Prince, Jen Rud and Gary Stene.