County to take up Lake Sherwood wastewater work

Shawnee County commissioners on Monday will consider authorizing the county's public works department to negotiate contracts with specific companies that wish to provide professional services for wastewater system projects in the Lake Sherwood area.

Two proposals regarding those projects are among items on the agenda when Commissioners Bill Riphahn, Kevin Cook and Aaron Mays meet at 9 a.m. Monday in their chambers in Room B-11 of the County Courthouse, 200 S.E. 7th.

The Topeka City Council won't meet Tuesday because it will be the fourth Tuesday of the month, and the council only meets on the first three Tuesdays.

County commissioners plan Monday to consider authorizing county public works director Curt Niehaus to enter into negotiations with Bartlett & West of Topeka to provide professional engineering services to design and construct critical wastewater systems rehabilitation projects in the Lake Sherwood area, just southwest of Topeka. Bartlett & West submitted the one proposal the county received for that purpose.

Commissioners also plan to consider authorizing Niehaus to enter into negotiations with the team of CAS Constructors LLC of Topeka and Burns and McDonnell, of Kansas City, Mo., to provide a grit removal unit and carry out limited rehabilitation of the existing grit removal unit at the Sherwood Wastewater Treatment Plant. Their team submitted one of three proposals the county received for the project.

Plans call for all costs involved to be paid using money from the revolving loan program operated by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The loans involved would then be paid off using fees paid by the users in the Sherwood Regional Wastewater District.

In other business, commissioners plan Monday to:

• Consider authorizing Stormont Vail Events Center general manager Kellen Seitz to enter into a contract with Brookings, S.D.-based Daktronics through which that company would carry out the sole source repair — expected to cost no more than $7,000 — of a Dakotronics digital marquee sign at that facility.

• Consider continuing to provide tax breaks the county previously granted as economic development incentives to HMC, Inc.; Frito-Lay Inc.; and Topeka Grand Real Estate LLC.

• Heard the first of four quarterly reports they will hear this year from Valeo, the county's mental health services provider.