The Price City Council hosted a special meeting on Monday, Sept. 16. This meeting was in regard to the engineering services for the EWP flash flood project. In front of the council was the consideration and possible approval for Johansen & Tuttle Engineering to provide design and construction engineering services for the project.
The estimated cost of services, paid for by a grant received from the EWP, is $273,487.50. Proposals were received by two firms back when the city had the request for qualifications process open. The two proposals were reviewed by the committee, who recommended that Price City interview both firms to obtain more information.
This happened on Friday, Sept. 13, with Mayor Mike Kourianos joining the committee to meet with each firm separately. Public Works Director Miles Nelson explained that both proposals were reviewed, as well as both firm’s approach, expertise and background.
Based upon the reviews, Johansen & Tuttle were selected to work with the city on the project, which involves two areas. The first is Wood Hill, which goes up to a water tank. The access road has a drainage ditch that is overwhelmed in serious storms and is not performing well. Nelson stated that the goal is to improve that ditch, possibly cementing it in for a more efficient flow.
The other project is over on Mead’s Wash near 1200 East. A detention pond is going to be installed to stow the flow of water that came across recently, flooding the apartments there and displacing residents from their homes.
Those two projects will be included in the overall project and the engineering portion, Nelson stated, is 100% paid for by the NRCS. For the project itself, the city is responsible for 75% and Price City went to the Community Impact Board (CIB) to obtain a match for most of what the city owes.
Approving the engineering firm for the design and construction is the next step in moving forward. Within the week, the council will approve an agreement with the engineer to move forward with the NRCS. Mayor Kourianos stated that the impact to Mead’s Wash will positively effect a lot of the flooding that’s occurred. With that, the firm was approved.