By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES - A final design for the new Chemical Bank building for downtown Niles was approved by the Niles City Council Monday night. The two-story building will be constructed by Fiskar's Construction and Genesis Engineering at the intersection of Main and Fifth Streets.
The bulk of other requests heard by the board came from the city's utilities department. Included were requests from the Wastewater Treatment Plant, the water division, the electric division, the street department and also a request for a sanitary sewer evaluation study.
The board approved the request from Wastewater Treatment Plant for the replacement parts for a progressive cavity pump for a cost of $5801.45 from Fluid Process Equipment of Kalamazoo. The pump moves sludge between two holding tanks in a process that dewaters the sludge without the addition of chemicals. The pump was last replaced in 1991 and is no longer dependable.
Four wells on the city's water system inject chlorine into the system for disinfecting purposes, which creates a safety concern for employees. The water division requests the purchase of four detectors to help to guard against an employee entering the chemical room of the well houses without being overcome by chlorine gas in the event of a leak. A quote of $8,500 from Jamark, Inc. of Milford for the purchase of four chlorine gas detectors for use by the water division was approved by the board.
The board also accepted the quote of $9,800 from T and R Electric Supply Co. of Coleman, S.D. for the purchase of a 750 KVA Padmount Transformer for use by the electric division. The transformer is required for the new electric service to the YMCA facility on Front Street.
The board also approved the request of the electric division to contract with the Utility Financial Solutions of Holland to update the division's cost of service study and rate design at a cost not to exceed $9,800.
A request for an addition to the city's original sanitary sewer evaluation was also accepted by the board.
The utilities department will contract with Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr and Huber to conduct a study at a cost not to exceed $57,478. The study will provide additional flow monitoring, investigation and modeling of the wastewater collection system.
The street department was approved for the purchase of a 2006 Ford F-150 pickup from Campbell Ford of Niles for a cost of $12,990.60.
The board also re-appointed three people to the Downtown Development Authority and one person to the Parks and Recreation Board. Elizabeth Bradford-Keller, Michael Majerek and Chickie Landgraf were all appointed to four-year terms beginning immediately and running through December 31, 2009. Tara Gallagher was re-appointed to a four-year term beginning immediately and ending on Dec. 31, 2009.