Owensboro Municipal Utilities has nearly completed their capital project of electric delivery to the Bluegrass Commons neighborhood.
OMU Engineering Manager Austin McLimore said Thursday that the project cost $44,242, which was more than $31,000 under budget. Similarly, he said that the Shoppes at 3800 — a project at the Old Texas Gas location on Frederica — and the Gateway Commons project are projected to finish far under budget.
McLimore said they hadn’t seen much activity at Shoppes at 3800 and are expecting it to only cost $10,000 instead of the $50,000 budgeted. The Gateway Commons project was budgeted to cost $100,000 but is not expected to cost $30,000.
Throughout the rest of the town, McLimore said that some projects had to be canceled and transferred to the Fiscal Year 2023.
“The Bluff Avenue and the Ottawa Drive Reconductor, we pushed both of those projects in the FY 23 because we had a much larger reconductor project down around 4th Street over to 5th Street,” McLimore said.
In the current year, he said the department is projecting just over $2 million spent toward projects.
He said that a few projects ahead for the department include replacing a small galvanized main on Cedar Street along with ones on Birkhead Avenue, Jeff Place and Stonewall Court, and a project on Industrial Drive as well.
“None of them have been started yet — other than the engineering of all of them. They have been submitted for reimbursement and we expect to get reimbursement. We should get that announcement coming up here shortly,” McLimore said.
In other business during the OMU board meeting, they noted the utility is in the process of decommissioning six projects at the Elmer Smith Station — ash ponds asset retirement obligation, coal pile, structures and balance of a plant, environmental remediation, asbestos removal, and stack removal. All are expected to be finished before the end of the Fiscal Year 2022.
