Ramsey to vote on proposed plans for water treatment plant

If approved, at a cost of approximately $37 million (with a 10% contingency included), constructing the treatment plant will be the largest capital project the city has ever undertaken.

City officials plan to review bids March 9, and the tentative plan is to award the construction project March 28 with construction slated for April or May of this year.

“Our goal is to have substantial completion on May 1, 2025,” Vollmer said.

The need for a water treatment plant arose on April 2, 2019, when the Minnesota Department of Health reported multiple Ramsey city wells contained more parts per billion of manganese than considered safe.

Since then the city started using only its wells with the lowest concentrations of manganese, according to its website. Constructing the water treatment plant will create a permanent solution to the manganese problem.

Vollmer first presented the preliminary plans to the council on Oct. 25, 2022.

At the fall meeting, City Council Member Chelsee Howell requested that Vollmer investigate more cost-saving measures.

She asked if proposed 3-foot structural “bump-outs” on the exterior walls on the face of the facility could be removed, if the building required translucent paneling and if it was possible to remove or scale down any administrative space.

Vollmer responded that by working with the project architect, project managers removed the bump outs and reduced them to a 3-inch panel for a savings of approximately $20,000.

“The architect felt those were nice to have, they give it some texture and feel, but given that this is in more of an industrial area setting, we gave our architect direction to remove those structural supports,” Vollmer said. “We felt that was a good compromise and still provides some of the same feel in that large wall.”

As for the translucent paneling, Vollmer looked into that and found that it costs approximately $65 per square foot while precast metal paneling and insulation runs about $60 per square foot.

“We didn’t feel like there was a substantial difference in cost,” Vollmer said.

Translucent panels also provide interior light, and they provide access as they can be removed to move equipment in and out of the facility, he said.

Designs for the administrative spaces call for 2,500 square feet of space. The administrative area will contain a control room, a meeting room, a lab and bathrooms.

“All of which are necessary rooms within this facility,” Vollmer said, “and I don’t think that they’re overly large at all.”

The only room to look at removing, or reducing, is the meeting room, which is 500 square feet. The entire facility is designed as a rectangle and removing or reducing the room would alter that design.

“Ultimately, removing that could actually increase the cost of the precast because now you’re adding additional precast surface areas,” Vollmer said. “So I don’t think there would really be a cost-savings benefit to removing that meeting room.”

Moving away from cost-saving measures, Ramsey Mayor Mark Kuzma asked Vollmer about the possibility of expanding the plant in the future.

The plant will be built at a rate much higher than needed for Ramsey’s current water needs. The facility will be built to treat 10 millions of gallons of water per day.

“Your water demand is not anywhere near 10 MGD, so there’s already capacity built into the facility,” Vollmer said. “As water treatment plants go, you don’t build it for your demand today, you build it into the future, but there’s always the ability to add additional filters.”

In other business

At the council’s Jan. 10 meeting, several citizens objected to approving a business license for Norman Tobacco LLC, a proposed tobacco store at the North Star Market Place. The item was pulled from the consent agenda and council members agreed to table the issue so they could gather more information before voting on the license.

Also, currently serving council members Chris Riley and Dan Specht were sworn in to another term to the Ramsey City Council after winning reelection in the fall.

Michael Olson was sworn in to the council for his first term. Olson replaces Council Member Ryan Heineman, who did not seek reelection.

Matt.DeBow@apgecm.com