Saturday, May 08, 2004
Blacksburg Town Council to consider rejecting sewer bids
Blacksburg Town Council is set to consider withdrawing offers to purchase land for the Toms Creek sewer at its meeting Tuesday.
Also on a meeting agenda posted on the town's Web site Friday are measures to reject all bids for constructing a new pump station and to formally direct the town manager not to close on bonds for the sewer. All three actions are listed in the agenda's consent section, which is usually reserved for issues that need no discussion.
Councilman Al Leighton, who has opposed plans for a conventional sewer through the Toms Creek Basin, said he hoped the council would halt the sewer project and re-evaluate its options in the wake of Tuesday's council elections.
Three anti-sewer candidates trounced three sewer supporters, meaning that after July 1, when the new members take their seats, the majority of council will no longer favor a conventional sewer.
"It would be inappropriate for us to tie the hands of the new council" by awarding contracts or otherwise moving ahead with the project, Leighton said.
A $2.3 million construction bid on the pump station is due to expire this month. About $5.3 million more in bids for pipe installation will expire early next month.
A legal challenge to a $7.6 million bond issue that the council approved in March for the project was scheduled to be heard Thursday in Montgomery County Circuit Court but has been continued. No new date has been set, a staff member in the circuit court clerk's office said Friday.
Five of the seven members of the council that will take its seat in July have said the town should take a closer look at a less-expensive plan to build a sewer pipeline down the U.S. 460 Bypass, rather than along Toms Creek, to relieve capacity problems in existing lines.
