Mayor Alan Moeder told the Great Bend City Council Monday that some work is still going on at the construction site for the future Ignite Innovation Center.
“Just to clarify everything that was said two weeks ago, the contractor is still on the job. They’re actually doing some work,” Moeder said. “The roofers have been there; I saw the heat and air guys there in the truck today. I visited with them this morning. They’re still waiting on the front doors to close it in, and they’re hoping they’ll be here in two weeks.
“And their fundraising is looking like it’s going well,” Moeder continued. “I just want to clarify that so there will be no more rumors about the contractor leaving.”
Councilwoman Rickee Maddox said Great Bend Economic Development has opened a website that is “loaded with information.”
Seehttps://www.gbedinc.com/innovation-center.
Wastewater Treatment Plant needs costly repair
A breakdown on the secondary clarifier at the Wastewater Treatment Plant last week will require costly repairs, City Administrator Logan Burns said.
“The metal holding the top control arm separated from the pivot point. We are officially down to one clarifier now,” he said during his report on what is happening within the City organization. “Now we’re in the middle of cleaning the clarifier, and we’ll know the true extent of damage this week, hopefully by Friday.”
Utilities Director Darren Doonan is putting together bid specs.
“This won’t be a quick fix,” he said, adding the sooner the repairs can be made, the better. “We will be running on the east clarifier alone right now, so hopefully that stays in good condition, because it is in the same condition as the west one that went down.”
Donnan said he doesn’t have a concrete timeframe for when repairs can be made.
“In early 2025, we had freezing foam on top of this clarifier, and that caused significant damage to the structural steel (and other damage). We haven’t quite gotten down to the bottom of that yet. My hope is that we’re able to put a temporary repair on this clarifier and get it back into operation quickly.”
After that, he’ll be able to look at alternatives to improve the plant and make its operation more sustainable over time.
“Those numbers, initial numbers from last year, are very, very expensive, but we’re doing our due diligence to make sure that we do the best for the city,” Doonan said.
Burns said the last major upgrade to the plant was in 1997 or 1998. Most of the major components have a 20-25 year lifespan, “and that’s why we continue to see failures.”
More news
• The Feb. 17 council meeting will include a work session with a representative from engineering firm JEO to go over the city’s pavement management program.
“That will give us a 10-year capital improvement plan for the streets in Great Bend,” Burns said. “There will be three phases of this plan, and the plan identifies locations in each phase that need to be done.” In the coming months, they will review locations for Phase One, along with the budget for the year, for council approval.
• Footings for the tower at the dragstrip were poured last Friday. Structural steel is scheduled to be here at the end of the month. Workers will continue to monitor the weather to see if a two- or three-week break will allow them to get some pavement laid on the dragstrip.
