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City of Missoula, Montana Item to be Referred to City Council Committee Committee: Conservation Committee Item: Parks and Recreation Dept Purchase VGB Compliant Drain Grates for Aquatic Facilities Date: Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 Prepared by: Eric Seagrave Initiated by: Eric Seagrave Action Required: Approve the purchase of 14 Drain Grates/Shields for Splash Montana and 8 Drain Grates/Shields for Currents Water Park. Recommended Motion: I move the City Council approve the purchase of 14 Drain Grates/Shields for Splash Montana and 8 Drain Grates/Shields for Currents Water Park from Knorr Systems, Inc. of Santa Ana, California for $22,288. Timeline: Referral to committee: 1/29/2010 Committee discussion: 2/3/2010 Council Action: 2/8/2010 Background and Alternatives Explored: In 2007 the US Congress passed the Virginia Graeme Baker Act and provided one year for various facilities and manufacturers to comply with the Act, which was due for enforcement in December 2008. The Act specifies that the Consumer Product and Safety Committee (CPSC) would be responsible for enforcement. Originally, the Act did not apply to facilities already built with multiple or over-sized drains, such as Splash Montana and Currents. In July of 2008 the CPSC published an interpretation of the Act which determined the details of the Act, including sump depth and sizes, vacuum pressure at the face of the drains, and that all drains be stamped as VGB compliant. This interpretation did not exempt Splash and Currents. However, because of the size of the drains in the facility, there were no manufacturers that made drains that could be used to be compliant. Parks Department staff contacted the designing engineers for the facility and began working on a solution. Staff were assured that while there was no increased risk at the facility due to the Act, ---PAGE BREAK--- compliance was mandatory because of some of the details of the Act. Thus, the Department had to wait for manufacturers to design and build drains that met the requirements. Upon receiving confirmation that the appropriate product for the facilities were nearing the final stages of testing to be compliant with the new standards in August of 2009, staff commissioned USAquatics to engineer a solution for Currents and Splash Montana,. Part of the plan requires some minor alterations to the sumps in several of the 22 drains located in the facilities and the installation of various models of drain grates and shields. Work on the sumps at Currents was completed while the facility was closed for annual maintenance in September, as per the engineering plan. In November of 2009 the grates became available for purchase and staff began the process of writing the request for bids to purchase the drain grates. For Splash the work will be completed prior to opening in Spring of 2010. For Currents, the grates will be installed during the annual maintenance closure in September. Financial Implications: The total cost of this purchase is $22,288. The funds remaining from the original construction budget, approximately $91,000 will be used to purchase the grates and bring the facilities into complete compliance with the Act. As this is a capital improvement required by Federal Law, which was enacted just as the final pool was being completed, this is an appropriate expenditure. The balance was left to address any item that developed within the first 12-24 mos related to the infrastructure. Attachments: Bid Document