City council approves relocating lift station

Updated: November 19, 2020

***This Lift Station Station Number 13 will be relocated to an area away from Ninth Street after the city council approved a bid to handle the project.*** Photo: Tony Vindell / LFN

By TONY VINDELL
LFN

It has been many years since the Los Fresnos Public Water Works Department built Lift Station Number 13 in the south part of the city.
Surrounded by an old chain link fence, the old facility is literally in the backyard of a home or a neighborhood, long known as Barrio La Garrapata.

The lift station has been a source of discontent among those living nearby. Some people said the stench produced by sewage bothers them though others said it’s something they can live with.

Whenever there is a heavy downpour, an area east of the lift station floods causing quite a mess.

But that is soon to change as the city council approved at its Tuesday, Nov. 10, an action to award a bid to a company that will relocate the lift station away from the neighborhood on South Ninth Street.

The lowest bid was submitted by Closner & Sons Construction of Mercedes for $350,000-plus.

City Manager Mark Milum said the city received funding for $330,000 from the Community Development Block Grant for the project.

He said they will use money from other sources to make up for the shortfall.
The lift station relocation project brought relief to residents living close-by the facility.

Among them are Jose Garcia and Jose Peña.

They said it was about time for the city to do something.

In other action, the council approved a renewal of a memorandum of understanding between the Los Fresnos Police Department and the Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District Police Department and a Community Development Corporation request to buy decorations for Christmas and the Blue Light Campaign.

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