City to step up monitoring of business waste

The city of Medford is looking to see that businesses are not putting an excessive burden on the wastewater treatment plant.

Wastewater treatment plant manager Alex Zenner came to the city council at Monday’s committee of the whole meeting to request hiring a summer worker to collect and monitor waste coming from area businesses and industries to determine if they are discharging waste above domestic levels.

He said currently only two businesses are routinely monitored — Nestlé Pizza Division and Medford Fur Foods. He explained the monitoring would extend to all commercial businesses specifically those involving food production, those having existing grease traps, metal finishing and healthcare facilities. At this point, the monitoring would be done to gather data.

There are about 40 facilities Zenner would like to monitor. They intend on doing 30 facilities a week five days a week and 10 facilities seven days a week.

Zenner noted that depending on the amount and type of waste being discharged by these businesses, there may be a need for pretreatment. He told council members he sorted through the large water meter utility customers to select ones that fit the criteria for monitoring.

“We don’t know if there is a problem or not, but we want to see if there is a problem,” said council member Mike Bub, noting that it is not fair to pick on Nestlé when other companies may be in the same situation.

Alderman Greg Knight also noted that it is an opportunity for the city to See CITY on page 4 gather real data which then can be shared with the business owners and managers to give them an opportunity to change practices.

Zenner agreed, noting that at places such as Nestlé there is an emphasis on dry cleanup with them realizing that if they can sweep it up rather than washing it down a drain, it can be a lot cheaper for the company.

Zenner said one of the advantages of doing it this summer is the availability of a student willing to do the work rather than having to hire an outside company for it. He said that Brooke Wagerer was in a mentorship from Medford Area Senior High School the first semester of the school year. He said Wagerer has expressed interest in working with the city to do the industrial monitoring.

By way of comparison, Zenner got a quote from Badger Labs of Neenah for the same level of monitoring for $13,300. He noted that paying a summer worker $15 per hour would cost far less than that amount.

Council members agreed and voted to recommend hiring a summer worker to do monitoring for the wastewater treatment plant to city council for final approval.

Capital projects

Bids for two of the three city construction projects planned for this summer came in higher than anticipated.

The city has planned the following three projects for this summer: reconstruction of Madison Street, sanitary sewer lining on Hwy 13 from Perkins St. to the Highway Shop and for replacement and relocation of the water main serving Medford Area Senior High School.

The engineer’s estimate from Ayres Associates for the reconstruction of Madison St. was $347,400 plus a contingency of $34,800. The low bidder for the project was from Frances Melvin Inc. at a cost of $396,767.17.

Switlick and Sons was the second low bidder at $484,426 and Haas Sons bid $515,897.

Council members noted the wide range between the bids received. City coordinator Joe Harris noted that with Melvin in the city, they often come in lower due in part to lower mobilization expenses for getting their equipment to the site.

For the sewer lining project, the engineer estimate was $151,000 with a $15,100 contingency. The low bid on the project came from Visu-Sewer at a cost of $119,925. The engineer noted that Visu-Sewer is a large company that is specialized in this type of work. Other bidders were Hyrdo-Klean at $162,663, Haas Sons at $170,803 and Insituform Tech at $172,040. This project will be completed using federal ARPA funds.

The third project had an engineering estimate of $358,900 plus a contingency of $35,900. The low bidder was M& E Construction at $432,784. M& E did much of the recent water line replacement work on Whelen Ave. Other bidders were Haas Sons at $533,099 and Frances Melvin at $765,821.

Harris explained that the existing water main to the high school has broken in the past and runs adjacent to the building. He said with the potential that the district may want to expand the building, he said the plan is to run the main on the north side of the industrial arts building. He said rerouting it will clean up a lot of the mess there.

Council members voted to recommend sending the bids to the full city council for approval.

Council members also approved a state/municipal agreement for a project to reconstruct S. Ninth Street under a state and local government partnership. The city had applied for the state surface transportation program (STP) and was one of 11 municipalities across the state selected for the program which covers 80% of the project cost.

The project goes from Hwy 64 to Eastview Drive and includes new asphalt, curb and gutter and driveway aprons. Harris said the project was picked because that section of road does not contain any utilities and the road surface is in disrepair.

The estimated cost of the road project is $638,500 with the state portion at $510,280 leaving $128,070 for the city. The work is expected to take place in 2025 and will be included in that year’s budget.

“It is $600,000 to do a quarter mile?” Bub said, questioning the price.

“When the DOT gets involved, the costs go up,” Harris said, noting these are just estimates with the project to be bid out later. He said the city would not be able to rebuild that road on their own for the estimated $128,000.

In other business members:

  Recommended approval of the purchase of a replacement pickup truck for the city public works department through Medford Motors, which had the low bid of $39,883 for a four wheel drive, extended cab, F-150. Medford Chrysler Center submitted a bid of $40,096 for a Dodge Ram 1500. The new truck will replace a 2014 F-150 that will be sold on Wisconsin Surplus Auction. The truck is expected to be delivered within four to six months which was the same timeframe for both vendors.

  Referred an annexation request for a portion of vacated street right-of-way at 729 S. Park Ave. to the planning commission to begin the annexation of the property. The section of road is a platted remnant of a plan to extend Washington St. to the south, that road extension was never built and in 2005 was vacated by the town of Medford. Due to recent annexations, the parcel does not border any town property and is considered a “town island” which is not allowed under the law. The oversight was discovered as part of a revaluation being completed in the town of Medford.

  Approved a recommendation to adopt the designated unreserved accounts for the city. According to Harris these accounts are the nonlapsing funds used for major expenses or the purchase of equipment. The 17 general fund nonlapsing accounts total $1.45 million, with two accounts in refuse and recycling totaling $373,721.32 and two accounts in the wastewater utility totaling $22,382.14. Holmes questioned the $72,383 set aside for a citywide revaluation. Lemke explained that the city would set aside money for period revaluations. However, under the contract with the new assessing company, the revaluation is built into their yearly fee with it to be done every five years.

  Received the annual report from Medford City Baseball for the 2022 season and what their plans are for 2023. The organization is pursuing grant funds, which if approved would provide a sprinkler system for the field to improve the playing surface.

  Recommended approval of summer wage schedule with a 50 cent per hour base wage increase over last year in order for the city to be competitive with hiring staff.

  Recommended keeping pool fees for passes and day use the same as in 2022. Council member Dave Roiger questioned with the increase in wages if they should be looking at raising the rates.“It is not a money- maker,” said Council member Laura Holmes. Bub agreed and compared it to other city services such as snow plowing. It was additionally clarified that the pool use fees included the state sales tax.

  Recommended approval of a new park shelter agreement with a cost increase of $5 per day from $50 to $55 which includes the sales tax the city has to pay. Pending approval by the city council, the increase will go into effect starting with rentals made after February 20. Lemke noted the changes in the form streamline it and make it easier for people to see things such as the deadline for when they have to pick up keys. The new form also includes a provision that if a shelter renter forgets to pick up the key during normal business hours, they will need to contact the sheriff’s department and arrangements will be made to pick the key up with a minimum of a two hours overtime pay rate to be charged to the renter. The cost of replacing missing padlocks is $20 and missing keys is $5.