City Council awards bids for water, sewer project

ISHPEMING — The Ishpeming City Council awarded a pair of contracts to the same construction company during a special meeting Monday.

A. Lindberg & Sons was awarded the bids for the water and sewer lines project that is set to begin in July. The company came in with the lowest bid at $10.5 million.

The project is being financed through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Water lines that are 70-80 years old and older will be replaced.

“This project is going to help the city so much with so many problems,” said city manager Mark Slown. “We waste somewhere between 40-50% of the water that we pump out of the wells because of leaks. This will help to reduce this significantly. This should handle the worst of the problem areas.”

The city took out a 40-year bond measure with the USDA to fund the project. The USDA gave the city a $3 million grant to fund the measure. Slown says the city will meet with the construction company soon to figure out what part of the city will get worked on first.