Consideration and Approval of Contract:  Installation of an Emergency Generator at Fort Tuthill Well located within the Coconino County Fairgrounds (Approve contract with Commonwealth Electric Company in the amount of $506,500.00).

1) Approve construction contract with Commonwealth Electric Company for $506,500.00, and a contract time of sixty (60) calendar days.  
2) Authorize change order authority to the City Manager in the amount of $50,650.00 (10% of contract amount).
3) Authorize City Manager to execute the necessary documents.

The Fort Tuthill Well is the largest producing well in the City’s inventory producing upwards of 3 million gallons per day. This facility is the first water production facility to be equipped with emergency back-up generation in order to provide the community with water during an extended power outage. The City of Flagstaff water production facilities rely upon a single source of electrical power provided by Arizona Public Service. In the event of a catastrophic forest fire, mechanical failure or statewide emergency, this single source exposes the Utilities Division’s ability to provide water to our customers during an extended power outage. Our reservoir system can currently provide approximately 1.5 days of water during the summer months without power before we begin to compromise life safety assuming no additional water is needed to fight a structure or forest fire. Additionally, many of our water production facilities are constantly impacted by power supply interruptions during to monsoon lighting events. It is a common standard practice nationally that utility’s maintain emergency back-up power generation at key critical facilities in the event of an extended emergency power outage. The installation of the back-up generator at Fort Tuthill Well is the first step in Utilities Division’s ongoing quest to become more resilient and prepared for extreme conditions.

This project has been funded through the Utilities Fund’s Operations and Maintenance Budget. Funds are budgeted in account 202-08-301-1014-0-4402 $125,000.00 and account 202-08-301-1020-0-4405 $375,000.00. Remainder of the needed funds to be provided by the Water Production Operating Budget.
 

 

No

1) Award the contract to Commonwealth Electric Company as the lowest responsive, responsible bidder.
2) Do not award this contract and request staff to re-bid the project.
3) Do not approve this request increasing the city’s risk during an emergency or sustained loss of power for insufficient fire protection.

Fort Tuthill Well Pump Station is a modern well and pumping facility located in south Flagstaff adjacent to the Coconino County Fair Grounds. This well is our largest producing individual well with a capacity of 1.4 MGD with disinfection capability. It is the largest single water source for our limited funding, and will impact the largest segment of the population.

Staff issued a solicitation for construction bids, and was advertised on June 14 and June 21, 2015. Four bids were received by the opening date of June 29, 2015, and Commonwealth Electric Company was determined to be the lowest responsive responsible bidder. A tabulation of bids received is summarized below in the Expanded Financial Considerations.

The Flagstaff water system is very robust in its sources and facilities which are a definite advantage for problems internal to the city’s electrical grid, but all the water services for the City of Flagstaff rely on a single source of power coming up the mountain. The allocation of electricity from another provider or an additional mountain source of electrical power is currently unavailable. Our only power source provided by APS is from a single substation susceptible to mechanical failure, lightning, wild fire, and statewide emergency. During heavy monsoons we are constantly challenged by interruptions in our power supply. A sustained long term power outage or actual emergency that may impact the power distribution grid leaves the city vulnerable limiting our ability to pump or provide any reliable water and storage supplies will become depleted.
 

 

Power requirements are significant and require 750 KW of power for most city wells. All available water sources will require generators to be operational in a power outage.

Tabulation of Bids:

Contractor                                  Bid
Commonwealth Electric Co.        $506,500.00
LE Ludvik Electric                        $509,315.00
N.J. Shaum & Son, Inc.               $537,904.00
TSG Constructors, LLC               $587,000.00

Allowing the community water supply to become more resilient when it comes to electrical outages.

None

Approve and implement more generator installations as a continuing strategic initiative to become power independent during a regional emergency