More formally known as American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, members of the Pine Bluffs Town Council approved a plan to request up to $1.5 million in stimulus funds for completion of the town’s sewer line replacement project during Tuesday’s regular session.

Chris Lidstone of Lidstone and Associates explained to council there was a potential second round of stimulus funding coming through the State Lands and Investment Board.

"We’re hoping that stimulus money not used by other states will be redirected to Wyoming for a second round," said Lidstone.

During the first round of stimulus funding, the town applied for and was approved for just over $1 million in funds for the water meter replacement project currently underway in the town. At the same time, the town applied for funds for the sewer line replacement project, at the time, funding for the project was denied and the project put on hold.

"The initial project called for sewer line replacements, work at the lift station and at the lagoon," Lidstone said.

"We’ve had to scale back the project

to just the sewer line replacement," he added.

During discussion of the project, town attorney, Alex Davison asked Lidstone if the project bid contained a local preference clause whereby a preference was given to Wyoming contractors.

Lidstone confirmed the bid would contain such a clause to which Davison took exception.

"This being federal money, I’m not sure we can legally put the local preference clause in the bid," Davison said.

Lidstone noted that in other projects using federal funds, the local preference clause had been there without drawing the attention of state attorney generals or other regulatory agencies.

"The problem here is that we’re doing the bidding without knowing the funding source," said Davison who noted that Lidstone’s proposed funding sources potentially came from both state and federal funds. The in-state preference is required on all projects that use state money.

"We could have a real mess here if this becomes some sort of hybrid funding with both state and federal funds used," Davison said.

Lidstone said he would seek a letter from the SLIB clearing the in-state preference in the bidding.

"Would that satisfy the legal end of things," Lidstone asked Davison.

"I would just say that this is an issue we need to take a further look at," Davison replied.

In other business, council also heard from Lidstone on the initial design phases of the water distribution project with an amendment to the town’s current contract with Lidstone and Associates to do the work. Lidstone estimated the project would cost the town $1.7 million with the bulk of the funds coming from county consensus funds.

After some discussion, members of council decided to hold approving the contract for review and possibly going out to bid for the work.

Council also heard from Russ Dahlgren of Cheyenne based Dahlgren Consulting on improvement plans on the town’s well 1 and well 6.

"We have some funds left over from work on the Foxhills well and we’ve requested the WWDC (Wyoming Water Development Commission) to use those funds for work on other wells in town," Dahlgren explained to council.

Dahlgren explained after several pump tests at well 8, it was determined the town would get better results out of improvements at wells 1 and 6.

"With the improvements we’ve proposed, this should allow the two wells to operate as effectively as possible," Dahlgren explained.

The project will cost nearly $170,000 to complete with the town responsible for nearly one-third of those funds.

In other business, Mayor Bill Shain updated members of council on the recycling project noting that while the town has been approved to shirt-tail on Cheyenne’s services, the town wouldn’t know the exact cost for at least another 45 days.

"We need to take a look at how much it would cost us to truck all of our recycling ourselves," said Shain who noted the Denver recycling center would charge the town the same $5 a ton rate they currently charge Cheyenne.

In a letter that stirred the ire of all council members, the Laramie County Health Department and the State Fire Marshall informed the governing body that nearly $8,000 in additional improvements were needed to the new daycare center.

"I don’t understand," said councilman Mark Fornstrom, "if a representative of these agencies was involved in the design phase, why are we getting notified of this now."

After more discussion, members of council agreed to bring the matter up during next week’s day care center meeting for further discussion.

The next regular session of the Pine Bluffs town council is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, March 8 at town hall.