By TESA CULLI

tesa.culli@register-news.com

BENTON — The Rend Lake Conservancy District has awarded bids to begin construction on the water line to Marion, and will be pursuing federal stimulus funding for the project.

Bids for pipe and a water tank were opened on Monday, and RLCD General Manager Keith Thomason said the construction on the water line must begin by June 22.

The bids were presented by Glenn Clarida, the engineer on the project. The board approved a bid on 24 inch ductile iron pipe with the district portion of the cost being $2.1 million from J.M.Jones, Inc. of Thompsonville — which was under the estimate of $3 million.

The district received “built in” alternative bid choices for PVC pipe at 24 inch and 20 inch as well as 20 inch ductile iron pipe. Thomason and Clarida explained the pros and cons of both types of pipe for the board as well as the difference in size for the project. The main benefit of using the ductile iron pipe is its ability to withstand breakage.

There were a total of three companies which bid on the pipe, but an invalid bid was received from Reynolds, Inc., which didn’t contain a breakdown of the amounts bid. The second valid bid received was from Haler Plumbing & Heating of Okawville, at $2.2 million for the RLCD portion for the 24 inch ductile iron pipe.

The bids for the water tank were a surprise to Thomason and Clarida, who expected the cost of welded steel or concrete tanks to come in cheaper than glass lined storage tanks. The glass lined tank bid was the lowest, with Amerent Control Inc., coming in at $853,580. Kieffer Brothers Construction Inc., came in at $897,075 for the glass lined water tank.

There were no bidders for the concrete tanks, and two for welded steel tanks — Caldwell Tanks at $1.3 million and Pittsburg Tank & Tower at $1.5 million.

After approving the bids, Thomason updated the board on his work at trying to obtain stimulus funding for the project. Thomason explained the federal money was given to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to administer and the IEPA decided to award stimulus funds based on zero percent interest loans with 25 percent of the loan amount to be forgiven instead of awarded on a matching grant or competitive grant basis.

“I’ve been chasing this for about eight months,” Thomason said. “Because of the way they are giving out the money, we have to fill out all the applications and paperwork that are required for any of their loans.”

Thomason also said he has been told the money is only being granted to “shovel ready” projects, but EPA officials have cautioned the Marion water line project may be moving too fast for the agency to award the stimulus funds.

“We have to be under construction by June 22, and that doesn’t given them much time to review the applications and decide if we can get the money before we are well into the project,” Thomason said.

Board member Jim Rippy voted against pursuing the funding, saying that even with the zero percent interest and a 75 percent payback, he was against any borrowing.

Thomason said the district has not borrowed the full amount it has been approved by the IEPA for the water project, and explained that matching money that has been held in reserve for those funds as required by the agency could be used to pay back the amount that has been borrowed so far if the stimulus money is received. Rippy was the sole negative vote on the issue and all ordinances supporting the pursuit of the funding.