BELLVILLE — A $4.4 million wastewater improvement project “checks all of the boxes” in terms of American Rescue Plan Act funding, according to Richland County administrator Andrew Keller.
The Richland County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday awarded the sanitary sewer project near the Ohio 97/I-71 interchange to Driven Excavating of Crestline, an effort in what should be an emerging large growth area in the county.
It was the lower of the two bids submitted for the project, which were opened Sept. 17. The other bidder, Simonson Construction of Ashland, offered to do the work for $5,079,555.
Under federal ARPA guidelines, contracts for the work must be approved and the money appropriated by the end of 2024 and the work completed by the end of 2026.
“We are in the closeout quarter for ARPA obligations and we happen to be awarding our largest contract to date with ARPA funds,” Keller said.
“When you think about this project, it checks all the boxes. It’s going to contribute to economic development. We believe it will be catalytic in that way,” he said.
“For years to come, it’s going to be a blessing to the village. It’s going to be a great benefit to the businesses in that corridor, a corridor where we do expect a lot of development.
“Kind of the cherry on top is being able to install a lift station right next to the proposed YMCA soccer complex and to be a partner for that investment in our community,” Keller said.
“So we’re excited. It’s been a long time coming and we have a ways to go. This is the beginning of in many ways of the project,” the county administrator said.
The cost was estimated at $4.2 million by Richland Engineering Ltd., which designed the project.
Both bids, while higher than the estimate, were within the 20 percent allowed under state law, according to Patrick Schwan, principal engineer for REL.
The Driven Excavating bid was 4-percent higher than the estimate and the Simonson offer was 19 percent higher.
The county will use $4,407,439 from its remaining “restricted” ARPA funds for the project and add in $23,628 from the wastewater department’s capital fund. Keller said the county has $50,000 left in restricted ARPA he said will be used in a project he plans to announce in a few weeks.
The remaining $1.9 million in “unrestricted” ARPA funds will go toward the estimated $3.4 million worth of physical improvements to the county courthouse. Bids for those projects are scheduled to be opened next week.
Commissioners said all of the $23.4 million in ARPA funding received in 2021 will be spent.
“We are making sure that all money will be appropriated within the timelines given to us by Congress and the projects will be done in accordance with the timelines,” Commissioner Tony Vero said.
The wastewater project will stretch along Ohio 97 from east of Bellville-Johnsville Road to Kochheiser Road on the west, near the site of the planned $22 million YMCA of North Central Ohio Sports Complex, a 100,000 square-foot site on 35 acres on the south side of the state highway.
“I’m very excited about the project and I think it will be very good for economics in all of Richmond County. I am also very happy that it’s also going to be a good thing for the sports complex that the YMCA is doing,” Commissioner Darrell Banks said.
Officials hope the new complex is open by the end of 2025. Keller said the contract with the Crestline calls for “substantial completion” of the sewer project by the end of April 2026 and final completion 45 days later.
In February 2023, commissioners approved a $43,344 contract with REL to do the preliminary design phase of the project, which includes two new lift stations.
Nearly two years ago, commissioners approved a “significant” sanitary sewer infrastructure proposal.
The actual agreement approved by commissioners in September 2022 was an addendum to a 1981 agreement between Richland County and the Village of Bellville that had the county-owned sewer system handling the sites near the interstate and sending it through the village’s wastewater treatment facilities.
The area was not incorporated into the village until 1995. The now plan calls for the sewage system, built by Richland County in 1980, to be improved and then transferred to the village’s control.
