HSB pursues $4.2 million project

By Phil Reynolds
The Highlander
In a move Mayor Steve Jordan called “a long time coming,” Horseshoe Bay city council members on Tuesday, July 19 authorized City Manager Stan R. Farmer to negotiate a contract to build a $3.5 million expansion to the city’s wast water treatment plant. Engineering fees, equipment and materials will bring the total cost to $4.2 million, the council waste told.
At the same meeting, the council voted to switch the city’s trash pickup contractor from Progressive to Republic. Though Republic was the low bidder on the trash pickup contract, the cost will still rise slightly, the council heard.
The city had investigated expanding and improving the west water treatment plant as long ago as 2009, Community Services Director Jeffrey Koska said. At that time, the estimated total cost was $4 million, he said.
Koska said the proposed improvements would double the treatment capacity of the plant, now at 1 million gallons per day. It will also improve filtration technology, making residents less vulnerable to certain organisms.
The low bidder, Payton Construction of Wimberley, is expected to start on the project next month with a projected completion date in May.
Republic Services had the city’s waste removal contract in 2012 before Progressive won it, and Republic did a good job at the time, Farmer reminded the council.
Council member Jerry Gray wanted to know what would happen if a family had more trash than would fit in the standard container; Republic representatives assured him that the company knows certain holidays generate more waste than usual, and allows for that. If a family consistently overfills a container, the company will supply a second one at a reduced rate, Gray was told.
If a resident is disabled or for another reason unable to take the container to the curb, Republic will arrange to have an employee perform that task, the council heard.
The new contract will take effect Oct. 1.