MARTIN — Martin’s water and sewer worries could be a thing of the past as early as October of this year following a resolution awarding the bid to begin construction.

After a project vetting of the low bidder, Bob White Construction, by Summit Engineers, the waste water improvements are expected to begin in February.

A special called meeting was held Tuesday to inform the city council of Summit’s findings.

Kevin Howard, Vice President of Summit Engineering told the council that a meeting was held with Bob White and sub-contractor C&C construction following last week’s city council meeting, and that they were satisfied the contractors could handle the project.

“In our opinion it’s in the best interest of the project to go ahead and award the project to Bob White construction,” said Howard.

According to Howard, notice of the award will be forwarded to Bob White so that he can get his bonds and insurance together, and that the clock will start two weeks after he officially signs. The project is expected to be completed October 18 of this year.

“If this goes according to schedule, by the end of the year you should be in business,” said Howard.

Council person Mahendra Varia asked about the quality of their work, and the quality of materials that the contractor plans to use.

“We asked for a declaration on the bid form about who they were buying components from,” Howard answered. “I’m happy with those materials.”

Council person Charles Justice got to the heart of the issue when he asked, “How much of the problems is this going to fix?”

Howard said that he hopes the project gets the city of Martin back into compliance with the Division of Water, and eliminates the sewer smell.

“Its out intention to get you in compliance with the EPA,” said Howard. “It was a limited pot of money, with specific objectives attached to that, so we couldn’t do everything. The purpose of the project wasn’t for EPA compliance.”

According to Howard, the project does call for improvements to be made at the waste water treatment plant including new UV lamps to disinfect, a new aerator to vacuum out the basin, and get rid of the accumulated sediment.

Justice asked about a liner at the plant, that he says was torn. Howard responded that replacing the liner was not in the project, but if everything goes well, they could seek to amend the project.

The total project cost is $1.5 million with the contracted amount to Bob White construction coming in at just over $1 million.

What isn’t clear is how critically the streams and creeks have been degraded following six years of municipal straight piping. Mayor Howell said that he has a meeting with the Division of Water next month at which time he may get some of those answers.

A motion was made to approve the resolution by James Reynolds, and seconded by Eulene Ratliff. The motion carried unanimously. Council person Bobby Dingus was not in attendance.