CADIZ — After some discussion, Cadiz Village Council made a motion to prepare an ordinance to award a company to complete the upgrades to its water treatment facility. The final decision will be made at council’s next scheduled meeting at 7 p.m. May 21.

Three bids were received by various contractors to complete the multi-million dollar upgrades to the village’s water facility at last month’s council meeting — Stanley Miller Construction for $2,788,000; Kirk Brothers for $2,337,000; and Border Patrol for $2,327,519. The initial estimate for the project was $2.4 million.

CT Consultants, an engineering firm retained by the village to aid in the plant’s upgrades, made a recommendation to the council at Thursday’s meeting to hire Kirk Brothers of Monroeville, Pennsylvania to complete the necessary upgrades. The company was the second lowest of the three bids received by the village.

CT Consultants Principal Engineer Dan Barr said the choice was made based on Kirk Brothers’ prior knowledge and experience with water facilities.

“There were three bidders, two of them were very close to each other — Kirk Brothers and Border Patrol. Border Patrol was about $9,500 less than Kirk Brothers. Normally we would go with the low bidder, but in this case they’re so close it’s practically a tie. And also, we look at their experience record,” Barr said.

Although both companies had positive reviews, Kirk Brothers has more experience dealing with water facilities and filter rehabilitation for those facilities. Border Patrol does not have any water plant or filter experience, only wastewater plant experience, he said.

Cadiz is a surface water plant that uses Tappan Lake as its water source, he said.

“It means that the water could be more likely decontaminated and need to be treated more than a groundwater well. … It’s really critical that those filters are done right and done well. The EPA will be looking at everything we’re doing there to protect the village of Cadiz and everyone else using the water or power plant or anyone else in the future.

Council will make the final decision at the next meeting later this month.

In other news, Village Administrator Ted Andrzejewski discussed funding opportunities for the water upgrade project. The village has completed the filing for a $3.285 million loan through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. The loan has a one percent interest rate, he said.

“Of that loan, $1.3 million would be forgiven,” he said.

Andrzejewski said that $265,382 of the loan is contingency.

“That’s 5 percent of the contract bid. That’s put in there in the event we should need extra money if something unforeseen came up … If that money is not used, we will not take a loan out for that. The loan would be reduced by that amount of money,” he said.

The impending power plant, the Harrison Energy Center, has also committed $1.1 million toward the project as well. The power plant is set to be constructed sometime this year in the Harrison County Industrial Park in Cadiz.

“So if you look at the two important items, the $1.3 million loan forgiveness and the $1.1 million from the power plant, we could end up with $2.4 million of this loan covered and only have to take out an $800,000 or $900,000 loan from the state of Ohio,” he said.

The loan will be reviewed by the state next month, he added.