NewsCollierville's Big Dig
The Commercial Appeal, September 28, 2006
Wastewater treatment plant expansion is town's most expensive project ever
By Tom Bailey Jr.
Collierville officials ceremonially broke ground Wednesday on the largest public works project in the town's history. "Is Jane sure we have enough money for this?" Mayor Linda Kerley joked about Finance Director Jane Bevill during the bus ride from Town Hall to Northwest Wastewater Treatment Plant.
"This" is the $20 million reconstruction and expansion of the wastewater treatment plant. When it's finished in May 2008, the plant's capacity to clean sewage will be doubled to 6 million gallons per day. That's 9,000 more homes, or 15 years' worth of growth at the town's current rate of expansion. The new plant also will clean sewage differently. Instead of aerated lagoons that use billions of bacteria-eating organisms, it will use the organisms plus clarifiers, chlorine and ultraviolet light. The treatment plant, at 1500 Wolf River Boulevard, is isolated in a clearing of woods between the road and the river. "You bring your fishing rod?" Alderman Stan Joyner joked to Alderman Justin Mitchell as they stepped out of the town's old London-style double-deck touring bus.
Kerley told about 35 people gathered under a tent that the new facility will do more than just allow the town to grow. The new plant will assure that the town pipes clean water into the Wolf River. "We want to be as environmentally conscious as we can be," Kerley said. The expansion has been five years in the making, Public Services Director Bill Kilp said. "It's been a long time getting to this point. It took a lot of hard work and dedication," he said.
W. Rogers Construction Co, the Lexington, Ky., construction company that's building the plant, has built more than 300 water and wastewater treatment plants over the years, president Warren Rogers said.
But the Collierville project is especially important to the firm as it is Rogers' first job in Tennessee west of the Tennessee River, he said.
The work gives Rogers Construction a chance to build a good reputation in the area, Rogers said. "This is a very big day but the bigger day will be two years from now," he said of the completion. The town has issued revenue and tax bonds to borrow the money for the work. But even before the groundbreaking, the project ran into red ink.
Nearly everyone who sat in the newly upholstered seats of the old town bus rose to find that the backsides of their pants, suit coats and dresses were marked in red.
"We've all got a red glow on our seats," Alderman Maureen Fraser declared as Asst. Town Administrator Chip Petersen swatted away the stain from the back of his britches.
In a better omen for the expensive construction project, the red stains came off pretty easily.