Wastewater facility upgrade in flux

BARSTOW — A project to upgrade the wastewater-treatment facility is in flux after a heated City Council meeting.

At Monday’s meeting, the council voted 3-2 against paying $65,000 in “special engineering costs” to subcontractor Zenon Membrane Solutions, Inc. Council members Joe Gomez and Steve Curran dissented.

Mayor Lawrence Dale, who made the motion to deny the funding, criticized “accelerating costs” from HDR Consulting, Inc., the main contractor, and urged council members to be “responsible stewards” of the city’s money. The mayor attempted to bring up a motion to cancel the entire contract with the main project contractor, HDR Consulting, Inc., but Yvette Abich, the city attorney, said that would be a possible violation of the Brown Act because the issue was not on the agenda.

“The final design costs are in excess of three times the original bid,” Dale said. “My question is, where does it stop?”

This week, the mayor will meet with city officials to discuss the issue and could bring a motion to cancel the HDR contract — a move that would result in the city being unable to recoup more than $1 million invested in the project, according to City Manager Hector Rodriguez.

Dale suggested that the city could save money by contracting with Micromedia Filtration, Inc., a company that uses an alternative method that Dale called “a new technology with lots of promise.”

Gomez said on Tuesday he opposed to switching to Micromedia because more than $1 million dollars has already been spent with HDR.

“The Micromedia process sounds good but the company is relatively new, and I’d hate to risk the city’s money on untested technology,” he said.

Gomez disagreed with the mayor’s position and apologized to Garcia for the mayor’s lack of “respect.” Gomez expressed his support for HDR, criticized the mayor for “stalling” the already two-year-long process and accused him of favoring Micromedia for the entire HDR contract.

During the 70-minute discussion at the council meeting, city wastewater contract coordinator Pat Lendway expressed concern that the delay resulting from the rejection of the contract could jeopardize a state loan for the project. However, City Manager Hector Rodriguez said via e-mail that funding has not been jeopardized.

Dale said that there are available alternatives for funding if the loan falls through and that only the subcontract was rejected.

“The project will go through,” he said.

Upgrades to the wastewater-treatment facility were mandated by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Board because of elevated nitrate levels in the water. The city could face fines of anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 per day if it does not meet the July 2009 set by Lahontan.