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The City of Levelland City Council moved forward with biding out several projects to get hard numbers as they begin the process of deciding where to allocate remaining ARPA funds for the city.
During Monday’s regular council meeting, City Manager Brandon Anderson gave a presentation on behalf of the city staff as they recommended projects to be funded with ARPA funds.
Several options were presented to the group which included: new AMI water meter reading system and new meters, extending the CRMWA line from Hickory to the Airport, emergency services upgrades: outdoor tornado warning notification system, emergency dispatch processor and communication console upgrades, dispatch tower and communication upgrades, animal control vehicle and City of Levelland connectivity and broadband upgrade, internal system and L.G. Griffin Sign.
Due to budget constraints, internal finance repayment and seal coat for the roads were not included in the 2022-2023 budget.
Those two items were included in the current presentation as additional options.
Due to the cost of each option, a request for proposal or bids will have to be made before the council can receive hard costs of each project.
The council unanimously approved the city staff to begin the bidding process.
Once bids have been received, the city staff will return to the council with the numbers they have received, make a recommendation to the council and the actual decision to approve certain projects will begin.
The City of Levelland currently has $3 million ARPA funds available. Anderson broke each option into a best case, worst case and proposed projection costs for the council.
Anderson explained that the best-case cost scenarios also include the possibility of grant opportunities as he believes there will be some funds available for a majority of the mentioned projects.
The AMI system and water meter replacement project would take care of replacing more than 60 percent of the current water meters in Levelland that are roughly 15 years or older.
The city has begun a replacement plan with new meters already being put into the ground. A handful of the newer ones that have been put into the ground within the last three years could be retrofitted for the project.
The new system proposed by Anderson and the city staff would help the city gain and gather more information and be more helpful from a customer service standpoint.
Notifying residence of leak alerts that same day or if water is continuously running for a certain period of time, the city would be able to notify the customer quicker than waiting for the next billing cycle to determine there was a discrepancy or potential leak.
Anderson also added that the need for new meters is because they read inaccurately as the age and continues to get worse, not better.
“When the meters get older, they are on the side of the city,” said Anderson. “For us to judicially bill for what is being utilized, it is an important aspect that we need to read those correctly for how important that revenue is.”
The best case figure Anderson suggested was $1.77 million with $2 million being the worst case.
As mentioned before, the city has currently undergone a meter replacement plan and the staff have consulted with the current company they are purchasing meters from.
After speaking with the company, Anderson believes that after putting an RFQ out for the project, the cost will sit roughly around the $1.8 million mark.
The next proposed project discussed was the upgrades for the CRMWA waterline from the Hickory station to reach the Airport water tank in the south end of Levelland.
The goal would to also utilize the existing infrastructure to put that water well online.
Anderson added that the benefits of the project would offer a better water quality and higher water pressure to those located in the south side of Levelland.
Additionally, extending the water line would offer better fire control on that side of the town with the added water psi.
Originally with a $600,000 price tag a year and a half ago, the best case cost now sits at $1.77 million.
Working with Parkhill, a preliminary option was done in December of 2022, Anderson explained that there were a few things added in the preliminary option that were needed which brought the hard cost to $2.7 million which currently sits as the worst case price.
Communication consoles was the next item to be addressed, which is the radio infrastructure that sits in the dispatch office at the Hockley County Law Enforcement Center.
The dispatch officer was overhauled with new infrastructure, furniture, computers and other amenities, but the actual system itself is was purchased in 2008 with grant funding and has only been updated 10 years ago through grant funding as well.
Multiple council members expressed their concern as they believed the issue had been addressed during the building of the fire station.
Levelland Police Chief Albert Garcia was in attendance during the meeting and offered more insight into the topic and why it was needed.
Chief Garcia explained that the communication infrastructure that is needing to be replaced is in the radio room.
“For every frequency we transmit on, it has its own radio that is assigned in a radio room in the back part of the actual communication center,” said Chief Garcia. “The software was updated eight to 10 years ago isn’t realistically supported in this region.”
Chief Garcia explained that the other communication center that has that specific software is located in the Amarillo are which provides difficulty to find someone to work on the current software other than South Plains Communications.
The new system the city staff alongside the police department are looking at a MindShare system which would be considered a true dispatch service type system.
The system would offer a more seamless form of communication as the current system has the potential to break off communication prematurely whereas the new system would not have those concerns when operating.
Across Hockley County, the frequencies would remain the same and the only thing that would be changed is the hardware within the radios.
Bringing up tornado sirens next on the list, the best case cost Anderson proposed was $125,000, with the worst case being $275,000. Anderson added that grant opportunities could be $100,000 best case and $20,000 worst case.
The grant opportunities also coincide with grants for communication towers as well.
Anderson urged everyone to opt into the notification signup as it is the best form of contact for individuals within the county and Levelland as the sirens have become old and inoperable at times.
It was also mentioned that five of the seven sirens were not working last year.
Council members Jim Myatt, Michael Stueart, Mary Engledow and Breann Buxkemper offered comments and agreed on the spottiness of the sirens throughout the years.
Upgrading the broadband city wide and adding a redundancy was the next topic of discussion.
Anderson presented information with bluelayer Innovative Technolody Solutions.
The upgrades would bring in one hardwire from Vexus and would utilize microwave towers in elevated areas as the main source.
The upgrades would benefit the city and the internal communications that are required. Anderson added that from a legislative standpoint, broadband money is being sorted out and could definitely be a benefit for the city.
While the upgrades won’t specifically help the citizens with their connection needs, Anderson is hopeful that internet providers will look to follow inline with the city and the desire to upgrade broadband and connection wise when legislature finally moves forward with the possible funding.
For the redundancy portion of the project, the city would look to working with South Plains College as they recently brought in fiber from the south and could pose as a redundancy.
The best case cost is roughly $80,000, while the worst case could reach up to $125,000.
A cost share project for an L.G Griffin Sign was presented to the council with a spending limit of $4,000.
Anderson explained that himself alongside councilwoman Engledow and Mayor Barbra Pinner had been meeting with a group about the L.G Griffinn Park.
The LEDC recently approved a handful of renovation items for the park and that is when a group of individuals requested the possibility of a sign dedication.
Similar to the Bartlett Park dedication, Anderson explained that those funds were all donated and challenged the group to earn funds for the L.G sign.
The project will be a 50/50 bid.
An additional option is a new animal control unit with a bestcase price of $175,000 and a worst case price of $359,000.
Anderson explained that the previous vehicle garnered $28,000 in insurance proceeds. The new recommendation is a three-quarter ton chassis.
A new communication tower has been a reoccurring topic in the past and is now on the list.
The best case for a 200-foot tower is $175,000 while $350,000 which would serve a 300-foot tower to handle all communications needs.
Chief Garcia added that if the council moves forward with the project in the near future, the tower being replaced is in the city park area. The current tower is just under 300-feet and was built in the 70s.
The chief mentioned that only a handful of companies have accepted the job of climbing the old tower and fixing issues, only to come back down and say they have no desire to return.
The current tower serves the Levelland Fire Department, Levelland EMS and the Hockley County-Levelland Emergency Coordinator.