6 years ago by Jim Dewey
Tuesday night's Hannibal City Council meeting was all about construction.
Parks and Recreation director Andy Dorian was up first to talk about the finalized plans for the riverfront project. Since presenting the plan to council two weeks ago - the plan has been approved by other city departments and by Canton Marie Towing and the Mark Twain Riverboat Company. Dorian said a slight modification was made to some mooring cells in the water but otherwise approval was unanimous.
Parks and Rec and it's project engineers at Klingner and Associates are addressing a couple of issues that came up during the public comment period. Once those are addressed permits will be sought from the the Army Corps of engineers. Bids will be let after that with major construction beginning after the summer boating season. Some preliminary demolition is already underway.Parks and recreation employees are dong that work.
Next up was the head of the Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau. Gail Bryant said bids for the new Visitor's Center will go out in the next week or so. Bryant said that since the visitor's Center will be built near the Aquatic Center - construction will wait until late summer after the pool closes. The Visitor's Center is designed to resemble a riverboat and will be located to it will be the first thing visitors see when the exit Interstate 72 to go downtown. 
Finally, Heath Hall - Interim superintendent of the Board of Public Works, brought council up to date on the drinking water project. Hall noted that the HBPW board approved construction of a Granular Activated Charcoal method of cleaning the city's drinking water. Voters will be asked to approve selling up to 17 point 5 million dollar in bonds issue for construction on the August ballot. Hall says if bids come in below that number, the amount sold in bonds will be less, but the $17.5 million should cover construction and contingencies.
Hall says the bond issue fails, HBPW is still obligated to continue with the project. Another method of financing the project would be needed. The board has not yet seen a water rate analysis but Hall says the city will need about 52 percent more revenue in the water fund within 5 years. He said Hannibal's water rates currently run about average for the state of Missouri. Rates would be raised incrementally over that time period.
If voters approve the bond issue, construction could begin this fall and the project should be completed by the spring of 2020 as required by the ordinance requiring the removal of ammonia from the city's drinking water that was approved by voters and amended by the city council in 2017.
