By T. Scott Boatright
GRAMBLING —Grambling’s City Council unanimously voted to award an $814,850 contract to Suncoast Infrastructure for sewer rehab work for all areas of the city north of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railroad track during last week’s monthly Board of Aldermen meeting.
That move, combined with another made during the meeting, could mean Grambling is set to cover and complete sewer rehabilitation plans for 2024.
During Thursday’s meeting Grambling’s City Council unanimously awarded an $814,850 contract to Suncoast Infrastructure for sewer rehab work for all areas of the city north of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railroad track.
Henry Shuler, of Shuler Consulting, who serves as a consulting engineer for the city, told Grambling’s City Council that this project also includes installation of an emergency generator at the College Street lift station and that the work slated to get underway this fall will be paid for by a forgivable state loan.
But that wasn’t only the only move Grambling’s City Council made during last week’s meeting to upgrade sewer conditions.
The Council also agree to approve a $411,444.75 bid from Amethyst Construction for Phase II of the College Avenue renovation project, and because of bureaucratic protocol, then immediately voted to adopt a change order to redefined the financial amount of work to fit the $250,000 already awarded for the project, a move that should then allow work to begin,
Schuler said that while originally the city seemingly was set to receive $400,000 in state funds for the project, because Grambling State’s sewer system is involved and GSU was set to receive $150,000 for the part of the project running through its campus, that meant that the financial numbers needed to be adjusted but that the project will eventually be finished.
A Central Avenue apartment complex is at the crux of that matter.
“We can’t control what the state allocates, we just have to adjust to what they give us,” Shuler said. “This money will go up to the parking complex, but it will not do the parking complex. This is a deductive change order that gets us down to the money we have today. The good news that I want to share with the Council is that there is an additional $200,000 coming for repairs on Central Avenue. So Central Avenue will get finished. It’s just going to take another year.
“The thing is we can’t control what the state allocates, we just have to adjust based on what they give us. This money will do up to the apartment complex but not the parking, but we will get to do the driving lane that the public uses so much will be included in this phase, but there will be a third phase where we go back, finish the driving lane.”
“Now that we know we don’t have $400,000, we have $250,000, we’re going to have to phase it again,” Shuler said. Shuler then told the Council current funding will cover around half the project and added that he believes the remaining $200,000 to complete the project will likely come this fall in another allocation to GSU later this year.
