MITCHELL, SD (Mitchell Now) — The Mitchell City Council approved a grant application that would seek federal assistance in repaving one of the runways at the airport.
The request is for $8,154,000, with the state of South Dakota and the city of Mitchell responsible for just 2.5% each of the total, or $203,850 apiece. The other 95% would be picked up by the federal government. Brook Edgar of Helms and Associates reviewed the bids for the city, recommending staff to go with Feistner Gravel and Excavation of Woonsocket.
Five firms bid on the project. They were opened on June 17th inside City Hall. Feistner would be responsible for reconstruction of the runway and taxiway improvements, including asphalt/base removal, grading, paving and marking, installation of runway lighting, and more.
The project will only happen if the federal grant is awarded.
The council moved on to another infrastructure project, which came with good news. Budgeted for $500,000, the city accepted a bid from Hosier Worldwide, Inc of Deer River, Minnesota, to demolish the Burr Water Tower near the high school for only $97,600.
Public Works Director Joe Schroeder says the city will have some work to do in the area once the tower is down. “There’s a 24-inch line that we’re going to decommission, and then there’s also — we need to clean up the piping at Seventh and Burr. The piping in that area is kind of a monster because of where the water tower is now. Since it’s no longer in operation, we’ll clean that up and get that all fixed up.”
Some of the savings on the demolition will end up going towards the pipework on the back end.