Cape to re-evaluate Alliance's water contract over next two years

With major changes on the horizon for Cape Girardeau's drinking and wastewater systems, city officials are wondering if it's time to at least consider changing the company that has operated and maintained its water supply for two decades.

Since 1992, Cape Girardeau leaders have renewed five-year contracts with Columbia, Mo.-based Alliance Water Resources, the most recent of which cost city coffers nearly $11 million.

But on Monday night, the Cape Girardeau City Council only authorized a two-year contract to allow city staff members time to re-evaluate operations of all the city's water resources. Alliance's most recent five-year contract, renewed in 2007, is set to expire June 30.

City manager Scott Meyer told the council that now is the time to look at rethinking its water services. The city is switching its drinking water from treated Mississippi River water to groundwater from four new alluvial wells that are expected to fully come online within the next three months.

Also, he said, a new wastewater treatment plant is expected to be completed by 2014 -- which is why the newest contract would end in June of that year. The newest contract does allow for a six-month extension after that, he said.

Possibilities, Meyer said, include expanding Alliance's scope to include taking over the operation of the new wastewater plant, reducing the scope of the company's work, finding a new company altogether or bringing the work in-house.

Or maybe a combination of several of those options.

"Everything's really wide open," Meyer said in an interview Monday afternoon. "We're going to challenge ourselves to find the most cost-effective way to do this. It may be to keep things the way they are or we may find there's something out there that we don't even know about."

In Cape Girardeau, Alliance operates the city's drinking water system, using 36 local employees to staff the Cape Rock Water Plant on East Cape Rock Drive and Plant No. 2 near the corner of South Sprigg Street and old U.S. 61. Cape Girardeau has about 18,000 water customers.

But Dick Tuttle, Alliance's director of operations, said from the Columbia office that 55 percent of the company's 25 service locations involve managing drinking and wastewater systems.

Tuttle said he'd love to see the 20-year relationship continue and that the company is more than capable of taking care of both the city's wastewater and drinking water.

"Of course, we'd always like to increase the scope of our work," he said. "But we're not pushing for it."

But eliminating the relationship altogether -- and the roughly $2.1 million the city pays them annually -- obviously isn't the company's first choice either.

"That's not an option we prefer," he said. "We have no reason to think the city will end the relationship. But cities always leave their options open."

At Monday night's meeting, council member John Voss suggested that the re-evaluation should have been done before now. Before the current contract was signed, Voss said, he asked for the city to look at alternatives.

"I had actually asked for a request for proposals to go out to other providers for similar services to make sure we were getting the best value for our citizens," he said.

But he said he was basically told he had acted too late and the request for proposals were never solicited.

Still, he said, "I am still adamantly in favor of us testing the market to understand what options exist for providing water service to our citizenry."

Voss said his comments were not meant to reflect poorly on Alliance's work but added "you don't know what's out there unless you test the market."

Meyer said over the next two years the city will study what other communities are doing, have discussions with Alliance and other providers and try to draw up a plan and a timetable.

"We want a cost-effective solution and to save taxpayer dollars," Meyer said.

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO