By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The Kansas Army National Guard Armory is looking to expand its location near the Great Bend Municipal Airport, just east of Great Bend Expo Complex. The armory will be working on larger vehicles and adding to their fleet maintenance service.
As plans developed, BG Consultants was notified to
develop a plan to improve water service to the armory's facilities to allow for the
addition of the current building. Thaniel Monaco, BG’s Head of Environmental
Engineering, said the project will upgrade part of the waterline from an 8" to
12" pipe.
"To meet the demand for what we need for water flow and pressure, we're going to upgrade the city's wells out there with a control system," said Monaco. "It will be tagged into the new building's fire control system. If there is a call, it will turn on both wells at the same time."
The City of Great Bend will incur no cost for the improvement with the federal
government paying for the upgrade to the armory. Once the waterline upgrades
are finished, it will be handed over to the city and become part of Great Bend’s
system.
"This will push that water out to other users," said Monaco. "The largest user is north of 8th Street. We're going to push the water towards there so they'll be able to facility that easier. This shouldn't create any issues for anyone, but it will certainly create a better scenario out at the Expo and armory area."
Monaco said out of the four submitted bids, the low bid was received at
approximately $837,000 for the waterline upgrade. In a separate project, the
National Guard is also making upgrades to the interior of the Great Bend
armory.