County Board approves bids on construction of Frankville water system

After many years of discussion, the Frankville Water System is about to become a reality.

Winneshiek County supervisors on Monday approved a bid of $431,845 by JB Holland Construction of Decorah to drill wells and build a well house and a bid of $314,117 by Volkens, Inc. from Dyersville to construct water mains.  The bid by JB Holland was 12 percent lower than the estimate by engineering firm Fehr Graham, while the bid by Volkens was 6 percent lower than the engineer's estimate.

"Overall we were pleased," said George Tekippe from Fehr Graham.

Funds from a state revolving loan fund will pay for the project.  Tekippe told supervisors it will take two to four weeks for that review to be done and for contractors to order materials.  That means construction should begin before the end of July.

There is a deadline of November 15th for JB Holland to complete its work on the well.  Once that phase of the project is done, individual service lines to houses can be connected.  The speed of that project will depend on the weather in late fall, but the overall project must be finished by June 15th of next year.