City hires engineers to design water plant rehabilitation

City hires engineers to design water plant rehabilitation

The Olney City Council approved a $15,000 contract to allow an Abilene engineering company to assess the city’s water treatment plant and devise a plan to refurbish it, starting as soon as spring 2026.

The plan to hire Jacob | Martin Architecture & Engineering comes about a year after the Council rejected bids to build a new water treatment plant, using the $13.5 million in revenue bonds issued in April of 2023.

The bids came in about $2 million higher than the available revenue, as a result of COVID-19 supply chain prob- lems, as well as rising in- terest rates and inflation.

The Council next debated about whether to rebid the project but learned that the process would cost an additional $500,000 and decided to focus more on refurbishing the old plant, Mayor Rue Rogers said.

Two other firms sub mitted Statements of Qualifications, including Corlett Probst & Boyd and Inprotech Hibbs & Todd, City Administrator Simon Dwyer said. Jacob Martin