A special workshop meeting has been called for Tuesday for the Guthrie city council. The council will discuss three separate projects that could total over $2 million.
The July 18 meeting will be held on the third floor of City Hall (101 N. 2nd Street) beginning at 6 p.m.
The three discussion items, include the options on the Harrison Avenue Bridge, storm water drainage at the intersection of Harrison Ave. and Wentz St. and water source options to maintain the pond in Mineral Wells Park.
Last month, city officials learned the unseen Harrison Ave. Bridge, which is underneath the road and unseen by motorists, consisting of a steel beam superstructure with steel pier beams has significant section loss to a number of the steel beams. Related article: Weight limit reduced for downtown road due to bridge inspection
After the findings, the weight limit was reduced from 12 to three tons and portion of the street was closed off.
The City’s engineer group, Myers Engineering, is expected to give council members two estimates: a 15-year design fix and a permanent fix.
In an engineer’s estimate of probable cost, the temporary solution is quoted at $543,537 with the bulk of the price ($179,500) for the beam and column repair.
The second quote for the permanent fix, which is constructing a retaining wall and select fill material, is estimated at $695,040.28. The highest line item for the project ($182,00o) is for the retaining wall.
The next item of discussion involves the storm water drainage at Harrison and Wentz that serves the watershed as far east as the Masonic Temple along both Harrison and Oklahoma Avenues.
Despite repairs along the path throughout the last several years by the City’s street department, funding was not available for the engineer’s recommended repairs that were brought forth to the council in 2005 and 2012.
This portion of drainage is the bottom end of a fairly large section of the city’s central Storm Water Drainage Basin. Once the storm water reaches Wentz St. it then travels south down the middle of the street, under Jelsma Stadium, under the fire station and dumps out in Snake Creek, behind where the Dolese Concrete Plant was located.
Myers Engineer list three alternative estimates: $443,326 for a detention pond, $1,616,614.50 for a complete replacement and $622,015 for an upgrade storm sewer in the vicinity of the project.
The final item to discuss will be repairs to the pond of Mineral Wells to help maintain the pond’s water source.
The estimate to repair comes in at $138,732.35.
Currently the back pond allows water to flow under the roadway through a 12” culvert that is not visible. The back pond appears to be higher than the front pond.
According to the City, water is being pumped to the pond with a generator and a submergible three-inch pump. They say the cost of diesel and services to the generator is “very expensive.”
The public is always invited to attend city council workshops and meetings. Guthrie News Page plans to live stream the meeting.
Does the city intend to use the capital improvements money for these? The money we were told would be spent on projects the public voted for…