Upgrade to begin on sewer project soon
The Flomaton Town Council approved a resolution to award the sewer lagoon project to Triptek Construction of Atmore following a bid opening last week where Triptek submitted the low bid of $387,000 for the first phase of the project.
Flomaton received a $350,000 Community Development Block Grant for the project that includes a $70,000 match. However, Mayor Dewey Bondurant, Jr., said Jeremy McMath with Civil Southeast said the match could reach $100,000. However, Mayor Bondurant said McMath is working to get some financial help on the match.
Phase I will include the installation of of a chlorine contact chamber and the replacement of the baffle curtains at the lagoon on Martin Luther King Drive.
“Prices have gone through the roof,” Mayor Bondurant said.
Bondurant also said he talked with Atmore Mayor Jim Staff and said Staff told him Triptek was a good company and does good work.
Utilities Superintendent Shaun Moye said the curtain system in the lagoon, which is 25 years old, has completely failed.
Mayor Bondurant also told the council that he had talked with someone with the Alabama Department of Economic Development who said additional money for phase II would not be available until after the 2020-2021 audit is complete. He told the council the books were “out of wack” but Accountant Robert Hudson has people working with Town Clerk Carrie Moore to complete work and turn it over the Vance Kilgore for the audit.
Moore said the work is about done and added that the money is there from the CDBG grant for phase I.
In other business, Flomaton Police Chief Chance Thompson informed the council that he had applied for a $6,105.95 grant from the E-911 board to upgrade radio equipment in the police department and feels confident that the town will be awarded the grant.
Keeping up
Moye told the council members if they are getting complaints about things not getting done in time, like cutting grass, “we are doing what we can”. He also said his department is still one person short.
Mayor Bondurant also asked that if anyone has problems they need to call town hall at 296-2431 and put in a work order for the work.
“Work orders stay open until they are completed,” Bondurant said.
Moye also said the town is utilizing prison inmates but it’s becoming harder for inmates to sign up for the work. He said the town pays $15 per day for inmate labor from Atmore and the inmates get $2 per day. He said the problem is the money has to go to Montgomery and then back and some inmates don’t want to wait.
