Plymouth – The Plymouth City Council last week authorized the advertisement for bids for improvement projects for its wastewater treatment plant and collection system, with several weeks expected to pass before that happens. Consultant Richard Prima told the city council he was confident that the city can maintain an aggressive schedule of work to be done to meet the deadline for a grant award of January 29, 2010. Prima said he asked for the approval of going out for bids last week because the council only has one regular meeting next month, on November 12th. Vice Mayor Greg Baldwin said for $2.25 million, the city council should be willing to work on a holiday or at least schedule a special meeting, if the need arises. Plymouth has qualified for a grant for its sewer system improvement, in the amount of $2.25 million. Prima said last Thursday that the deadlines and paperwork to qualify for the project, included a “report of waste discharge,” which was “being handled” and was due last Friday, along with a “sludge plan.” The city must remove sludge from some ponds in its sewer plant system, at its own expense. The job will be advertised by November 3rd or 10th. Prima said the bid package must be succinct because the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act grant allows changes, and “any change orders will be done on our own nickel.” A collection system pre-bid meeting is November 30th, and a wastewater treatment plant pre-bid walk-through is December 1st. The city council will open the bids December 15th. The award package must be submitted by December 31st, and if approved, the council has 2 regular January meetings in January to award the contracts. He said the projects should lift a wastewater system cease and desist order that dates back to 2005. The plant, located about two miles west of the city, treats, stores and disposes of up to 170,000 gallons a day of wastewater, and was issued a cease and desist order January 27th, 2005. After failing to submit certain technical reports in June of that year, the city paid a $20,000 fine. The city requested that $10,000 of its fine stay in Amador County, and it went to pay for a restoration project by the city of Sutter Creek, which repaired the stream banks of Sutter Creek, at Lions Park. The fine was paid in full by August of 2005. Story by Jim Reece This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it