BonnerSprings.com

Service for clogged sewer and stormwater pipes in Bonner Springs may soon get a lot speedier.

At its Monday night meeting, the Bonner Springs City Council approved the purchase of a combination vacuum/jetting truck-mounted machine for the city’s Public Works and Utilities departments..

The $268,350 purchase will allow departments’ crews to clean sanitary sewer mains and manholes, clean stormwater curb inlets and pipes and find the depths of existing utilities before projects begin.

“It will pay for itself,” Kevin Bruemmer, director of Public Works told the council. “We’ll be able to offer better service in cleaning lines.”

Currently the two departments hire contractors to clean out stormwater pipes and sanitary sewer lines, with $22,822 spent this year for cleaning out a third of the stormwater pipes under Front Street, and about $25,000 was spent to clean sanitary sewer lines.

Besides saving the city money — by Bruemmer’s estimate the purchase will pay for itself in less than three years — the machine will allow on-call employees to respond overnight to “large rain events,” Bruemmer’s report said.

In other actions Monday, the council:

• Approved payment of claims for city operations for $236,644.

• Approved Public Housing Authority payments of $19,880.

• Approved the appointment of Patricia Wolfe to the Senior Center Advisory Committee.

• Approved an interlocal transportation-planning agreement between the County Commissioners of Johnson County and the cities in Johnson County. The agreement establishes an advisory council that will provide recommendations to Johnson County and its constituent cities on proposals related to transportation issues.

• Approved an engineering agreement with Wilson & Company Construction for the Kansas Highway 32 construction and water main project.

• Approved the Kansas Department of Transportation award and acceptance of a $4,820,117 bid by Amino Brothers Construction for the K-32 construction and water main project. The city’s portion of the project costs is approximately $1,752,261, with the rest to be paid by KDOT. Amino’s was the lowest of five bids for the project.

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