The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON—At a special meeting on Monday the Columbia County Commissioners moved to award P.O.W. Contracting, Inc., from Pasco, the contract to build a new county transfer facility.

The new station will replace the temporary facility after a fire destroyed most of the necessary operational equipment, and seriously damaged the integrity of the transfer station main building, in July, 2015.

P.O.W. submitted the low bid of $633,633.30, and County Engineer Andrew Woods met with the commissioners at the Public Works Department on Monday to talk about finances for the project.

“We need to get the new facility going,” said Chairman Merle Jackson. “This is our one chance to get a state-of-the-art facility.”

Commissioner Dwight Robanske agreed. “We need to get off the dime and do this.”

Woods told the commissioners that insurance payments after the fire will offset some of the costs associated with administering the project, and for contractor costs.

After insurance payments are figured in, the total cost to the county will be around $430,000, Woods said.

The county has already identified $350,000 from State rural excise tax for capital improvements for the project, but $80,000 has yet to be identified. The commissioners are looking into several options for that, and said that they expect a bump in revenue in 2017, from several large commercial projects.

Also at the Monday meeting, the commissioners awarded 3Kings Environmental, Inc., from Battle Ground, Wash., with the contract for Phase I of the Seneca Building demolition project.

The base bid for demolition and removal of the activity center, the chapel, the gate house, and the old residence on the property is $111,200.

The commissioners agreed with Woods’ suggestion to award the contract to 3Kings Environmental for their base bid, and then allow them to write a change order for asbestos abatement in the activity center.

The commissioners agreed to wait another year to demolish the laundry, restroom, dormitory, and barbeque area, all of which have asbestos.

Seventy-five-thousand dollars for demolition of the activity center, the chapel, and the gate house will come out of the capital improvement and current expense budget for 2016-18, with another $8,700 coming out of the capital improvement fund, or the commissioners’ reserves, Woods said.

Twenty-seven-thousand dollars for demolition of the old residence will come out of the equipment rental and revolving fund (ER&R), according to Woods.

Work is expected to begin on the new transfer station in mid to late August and be completed at the end of October, and building demolition at Seneca will likely start in August and be finished at the end of September, Woods said.