Consideration and Approval of Contract:  Approve the construction contract with JC Cullen, Inc., DBA Niles Radio Communications in the amount of $54,243.75 for the installation of a SCADA Network Tower for the Woody Mountain well field in Coconino National Forest.

1) Approve the construction with JC Cullen, Inc. DBA Niles Radio Communications in the amount of $54,243.75.
2) Approve Change Order Authority to the City Manager in the amount of $5,423.00 (10% of contract amount).
3) Authorize the City Manager to execute the necessary documents.   

 

City of Flagstaff Utilities is upgrading Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) communications of existing Utilities facilities. The SCADA system is critical to the operations and monitoring of water production facilities (i.e., water wells, treatment plant). The Woody Mountain well field has a maximum capacity of providing 5.24 MGD of potable water to the City of Flagstaff. The limited SCADA communications for these facilities is undersized with outdated communications technology and no longer meets the needs of the Utilities Division. Utilities has been working with the IT Division to ensure our SCADA network infrastructure compliments the City’s business network. This tower will allow for future growth and technology upgrades as recommended in the Utilities SCADA Master Plan. This project is located on City owned land. Utilities consulted with and obtained all of the necessary approvals from Coconino County, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and Arizona Game and Fish.   The proposed tower installation will allow the integration of our SCADA communications for these potable water wells into the overall Utilities SCADA network. This competitively bid project will expand internal network communications and reduce failure costs of outdated communications equipment, enhancing reliability and dependability of well field monitoring to protect public health.

This project has been funded through the Utilities Fund’s Operations and Maintenance Budget. Funds are budgeted as a onetime carryover in account 202-08-301-1010-0-4435.

Council has approved other network infrastructure towers for the City of Flagstaff’s internal business computer network communications. This project will provide unified and complementary communications with that existing program.

1. Approve the contract award as recommended to enhance network operability and reduce repair costs and avoid downtown and/or increased labor costs for well monitoring and control.
2. Reject approval of the award with a recommendation to find alternate solutions.

Utilities Division seeks to expand reliability and serviceability of all Water and Water Reclamation Facilities by developing a comprehensive SCADA network backbone. Utilities has worked with our IT Division to ensure any elevated structures and existing network towers have been utilized where available. The Woody Mountain has critical infrastructure essential to the delivery of potable water to the community. This project will add these facilities to the established SCADA network backbone by constructing an additional point of elevation in the Woody Mountain area.

The Woody Mountain Well field has been developed over the last 60 years in the Coconino National Forest with the first well being drilled in 1954. During this initial period, starting and stopping a well to meet the needs of the community required staff to travel to the Woody Mountain and make physical contact with each individual well. The condition and status of that well would have been assumed, but in reality unknown after staff departed. As the city grew, telemetry communications was established to monitor and control these wells reducing manpower required to perform the same functions. This improvement enabled remote viewing of well on/off status, well flow, and disinfection level monitoring. The proposed tower will make advanced communications possible to upgrade this control technology, in simple terms from analog to digital. In the future enhanced monitoring information will be available allowing for decisions to increase performance of the system. The proposed SCADA network infrastructure tower is the first step in making that enhanced communications possible for Woody Mountain well field. It is an essential element of the City of Flagstaff’s SCADA network backbone.

Purchasing staff posted a solicitation for construction bids on the City website on July 13, 2016, and advertised in the AZ Daily Sun on July 16 and July 23, 2016. Bids were due on July 28, 2016, only one bid was received.  JC Cullen, Inc., DBA Niles Radio Communications was the only bidder, and was determined to be responsive and responsible.

Enhancing the SCADA communications capacity of the Woody Mountain well field, will allow for future equipment upgrades to continuously monitor motor electrical use, underground water levels, total production flow, and increased disinfection control. Each of these are significant advances in support of the Utilities Operations. The installation of this SCADA network tower will also further our capability to invest in the well site security elements of tamper identification, intrusion alarms, and video capture. Identified critical components of a soundly managed utility.

The Woody Mountain Wells are a large capital investment for the City of Flagstaff. Improving the communications with these facilities will enable required control improvements affording proper management of this critical water resource.

Maintain a high level of service.

Consult: The Water Commission supports and reviews the Utilities Department operations of the water and water reclamation sections. Community comment was sought during public meeting held last November. United States Fish and Wildlife Services was consulted and delivered a decision that this project should pose no effect to listed species, specifically the Mexican spotted owl. Arizona Game and Fish Department consultation was sought and their comments were incorporated into the project design allowing County agreement with the project.