By SHARON K. HALL
Knott County Water and Sewer District engineer Ron Johnson brought news of successful bids on Red Fox water contracts.
The Red Fox water project is designed to put lines in the ground and a 250,000-gallon tank on the mountain in southern Knott County. The project has been idle for an extended time as the Knott water district waited on authorization from AML to proceed. This is the project that had to have Fish and Wildlife approval since it would potentially disturb the habitat of an endangered species of bats.
The project is divided into two contracts. A contractor will build a few thousand feet of road and make the tank pad; this is Contract 26. Another contractor will construct the tank; this called Contract 26A.
Johnson noted, “The bids were tight. Both bids together came in south of four million dollars and were in budget. It is one MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) and the contract amounts combined leaves $150,000 on the table. G & W Construction was the low bid on the lines contract. We only had two bids on the tank. Kentucky Glass Lined Tank System had the low bid.”
The Knott water board accepted the bids from G & W Construction and Kentucky Glass Lined Tank System. Both of the companies have worked on other projects with the water district. The proposed Red Fox 250,000-gallon tank could be modified later to hold 500,000 gallons of water.
It is possible that Letcher County will have a prison to locate in their county and if it does Knott County would need a larger capacity storage tank to supply enough water to Letcher County.
Johnson informed, “The Pippa Passes Wastewater Treatment Plant may get a funding start. I met with the funding folks and I got good feedback. Hopefully, we can get $1 million of “531” money, the Corp of Engineer’s money pot for sanitation funding. It would be administered through PRIDE. That would get the project started.”
Chief Financial Officer Kyle Smith cited a larger…
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