The Valdosta City Council approved two sole-source vendor items among seven water and wastewater items at its December 11, 2025, Regular Session.

A sole-source vendor is a single point of failure, and sometimes a very expensive one, as we saw with the Valdosta drinking water meter sole-source issue 2025-10-19.

In that case Valdosta had to completely replace 25,000 water meters.

Sole-source vendors can also be expensive, due to lack of competition.

Valdosta fixing sewer system problems before they break, Still, sole-source vendors are a problem @ VCC 2025-12-11

The sole-source vendor items were 6.d) about the Force Main Pump Stations, and 6.d) about a new Decanter Unit for the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant, among these seven water and wastewater items:

• 5.e) about the Knights Academy Road and Goodyear Lift Stations,
• 5.f) also about the Knights Academy Road Lift Station,
• 5.g) about cost recovery for those same two Lift Stations,
• 5.h) about the Barack Obama Boulevard North Widening Project, with an agreement with LEA for a 16-inch water main,
• 6.b) about emergency repairs at the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Station (WWTP),
• 6.c) about rebuilding pumps at the Gornto and Remer Master Lift Stations on the Force Main, and
• 6.d) about a new Decanter Unit for the WWTP.

Bids, Valdosta On-Demand, 3 water items, 2025-12-11 –VCC Packet
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6.c. Consideration of a request to rebuild pumps at the Gornto and Remer Master Lift Stations.

Replacing pumps before they break is a good idea. The catch is only one company, Xylem Water Solutions, provides these Flygt pumps, so Xylem is a sole-source vendor.

And without competition, the pumps are pricey: $138,526.40 for a pair of 385 Horsepower Flygt pumps.

As the pumps get older, the wear items must be replaced, as well as seals and bearings to lower the risk of failure during operation. The two pumps up for rebuilding are out of service due to excessive wear and are required to be rebuilt before being put back in service., 2025-12-11 –VCC Packet
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At least Xylem provides a preventative maintenance agreement.

Xylem Preventative Maintenance Agreement, 2025-12-11 –VCC Packet
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6.d. Consideration of a request for the purchase of a new Decanter Unit for the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The current Decanter Unit is not working correctly, and if it fails, one of the WWTP’s treatment tanks has to be taken offline. So Utilities wants to buy a spare Decanter Unit. Which is a good idea. But it comes from a sole-source vendor, Aqua-Aerobic Systems, Inc.

Again, without competition, this item is pricey: $98.622.00.

The Decanter Unit is a critical part of the treatment process in the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant’s four Sequencing Batch Reactors (SBRs) which are essentially treatment tanks. Without a properly functioning Decanter Unit, Staff is forced to take the SBR out of service which will decrease treatment capacity. Staff had initially planned to purchase a spare Decanter Unit to keep on hand if one failed., 2025-12-11 –VCC Packet
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6.b. Consideration of a request to approve emergency repairs at the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The City approved yet another bunch of emergency repairs at the WWTP. Which is better than letting it spill sewage.

The pieces of equipment apparently were not sole-source. But because it was an emergency repair, there were no bids, so RPI Underground Utility Contractor got a sole-source contract.

This was the priciest WWTP item on this agenda: $397,469.13.

RIP also got the most pricey wastewater item; see below.

SPLOST VII. On September 22, 2025, City Staff discovered a sink hole on the existing 36” Ductile Iron sewer main serving the Equalization (EQ) Basin at the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant. RPI Underground Utility Contractor was called to repair and replace the Ductile Iron Sewer Main., 2025-12-11 –VCC Packet
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The board packet included some pictures.

Photograph: Pipe excavation, 2025-12-11 –VCC Packet
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Photograph: Pipe under pipe, 2025-12-11 –VCC Packet
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Photograph: Gravel under pipe, 2025-12-11 –VCC Packet
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5.h. Consideration of a request to approve the Design Services Agreements for the Barack Obama Boulevard North Widening Project.

The one drinking water item is to run a water main with a sewer line up as part of widening Barack Obama Boulevard starting “just north of Northside Drive (at the north end of the GDOT widening project) and will extend about 3,500 feet north to Inner Perimeter Road.”

LEA is pleased to present this proposal to provide surveying and engineering services for the Barak Obama Blvd Widening North Utility Improvement project. We understand the scope of work to include extending a 16” watermain in conjunction with the Barak Obama Blvd widening project from Inner Perimeter Road approximately 3,500 linear feet south to just north of Northside Drive. The new watermain will be located outside of the new pavement and will connect the 20” line at Inner Perimeter to the 20” stub near Northside Drive. Also, the existing gravity sewer main will be replaced with new 18” PVC from Eastwind down to Northside Drive along the existing alignment.

16-inch watermain: LEA Surveying and Engineering Services Agreement, 2025-12-11 –VCC Packet
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For that and the other half of this design services project, LEA gets $422,950.

5.e. Consideration of bids for the Knights Academy Road and Goodyear Utilities Projects.

The three items about the Knights Academy Road and Goodyear Lift Stations seem to involve multiple bids.

The winner of the three bidders was RPI Underground for a total of $4,993,795.40.

The bid docs for the Knights Academy Road and Goodyear Lift Stations give locations in Special Provisions on Page 11 of 11: “the north end Forrest Street Extension and Knights Academy Road and 4121 Bemiss Road.” See CONTRACT & BID DOCUMENTS FOR Knights Academy Road/Goodyear Lift Station, Project No. 25-11-708, November 3, 2025, Bid Opening Date: 2025-12-02, 10:00 AM.

The last time I took a picture of the sign at the Goodyear Lift Station, it said:

Goodyear (Skipper Bridge) Station
4119-B Bemiss Rd.
Emergency Contact
(229) 259-3592

Goodyear (Skipper Bridge) Station, 2017-09-13 –jsq for WWALS

The Goodyear Lift Station is shown near the top of this map, next to Bemiss Road and just south of Cherry Creek. The Knights Academy Road Lift Station is highlighted near the bottom, at the northeast corner of Knights Academy Road and Forrest Street Extension. The City of Valdosta does not own any land there, but there’s a likely rectangle in that corner of a tract owned by PARK-HAWTHORNE DEVELOPMENT LLC, according to the Lowndes County Tax Assessors.

Map: Knights Academy Road and Goodyear Lift Stations, 2025-12-30 in the WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT) by WWALS

On the same page of the bid document:

Description of Work: The work consists of the following:
 
The Knights Academy Road work consists of the installation and construction of a sanitary sewage lift station, installation of about 2200 linear feet of new gravity sanitary sewer, installation of about 5800 linear feet of sewer force main, and other demolition, repair and patching, grading, grassing, and all related work.
 
The Goodyear work consists of installation and construction of a sanitary sewage lift station, installation of about 500 linear feet of new gravity sanitary sewer, installation of about 750 linear feet of sewer force main, about 150 linear feet of watermain, and other demolition, repair and patching, grading, grassing, and all related work.

Knights Academy Road & Goodyear Lift Stations, Special Provisions, 2025-11-03, Bid Docs –Valdosta Engineering
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Here are the bid amounts:

Bid Tabulation Project No. 25-11-708, 2025-12-11 –VCC Packet
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For the rest of the board packet, see this post by Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), Packet: 3 rezonings, dogs and cats ordinance, 7 water items, etc. @ VCC 2025-12-11.

http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/?p=25415

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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