MOUNT VERNON — Construction on the new administration building for Knox County’s water and wastewater department is progressing steadily.
The Board of Commissioners paid $142,500 for 2.3 acres at 22000 Coshocton Road last year for a new administration building.
Shrock Premier Custom Construction won the bid to construct the office building for $1.13 million. The architect’s estimate was $1.1 million.
Knox County Water and Wastewater Supt. Jeff Pickrell said crews laid the gravel and are ready to do the rough plumbing. Shrock should have the building fully framed by mid-September with occupancy targeted for late October.
Once framing is complete, contractors plan to shift focus to storm sewer installation around the planned parking areas.
“They’re going to try to get that all in so they can get black topping done before the weather gets too bad and cold,” Pickrell said.
One outstanding issue involves a retaining wall on the site. Engineers are weighing several options but have not yet delivered a final recommendation.
Heavy water runoff at the site prompted the team to bring in a structural engineer to review the wall before backfilling.
“We don’t want to have problems down the road,” Pickrell said.
While an end-of-October move-in remains the official target, Pickrell said Thanksgiving “would probably be a better guess.”
Either date puts occupancy ahead of a software changeover scheduled for February.
“That will get us before we change over our new building stuff,” Pickrell said, adding that early occupancy would allow IT staff “to get us set up good and ready to go” for the migration.
New well delayed until 2027
Regarding inflow and infiltration issues, Pickrell said ice pigging to clear debris in the main lines is scheduled for Sept. 21 to 28. He said the pigging should increase pump station capacity.
“That’s just a band-aid. We need to find where the water’s coming from, but that’s a challenge,” he said. “We’ve done a bunch of repairs on that back side of of the lake, and we still are having issues. But when you get that kind of rain, it’s almost impossible.”
The pigging will cost $60,000.
“We’ll do some preliminary testing before we do the the pigging, and then we’ll do some afterward,” Pickrell said. “Hopefully we’ll see a decent increase and a good bang for our buck, but we’ll never know until we do it.”
The state has not yet issued a permit to install (PTI) for the new well number 7.
Workers collected water samples, tested the pumps and sent the data to the Ohio EPA.
Once OEPA issues the PTI, Pickrell will initiate Phase 2: piping, electric, and other installation components.
Pickrell paid for Phase 1 from his budget. The county will finance Phase 2, approximately $95,000, through a low-interest loan through the Ohio Water Development Authority.
The county is waiting on a valve that is five or six months out from being shipped, which means the well will likely not come online this year.
“It’s not something we’re going to want, to bring a well on in the middle of the winter,” Pickrell said.
He expects a completion date of March 30, 2027.
