Corunna asked to add $68,000 to water tower engineering work

The one-line item on Corunna's council agenda for tonight — "DWSRF Summary Tracking Amendments" — now has a number attached to it: $68,000.

A letter dated Oct. 19, 2026 from the Lansing engineering firm C2AE to City Manager Joe Sawyer asks Corunna to approve Amendment #7 to an agreement dated Dec. 15, 2021, covering engineering and construction services on the city's EGLE drinking water revolving fund project. The firm writes that "recent conversations with City staff and the EGLE representative overseeing the Corunna DWSRF grant/loan" identified "enhancing improvements that can be incorporated into the project to improve system reliability, performance, and operations."

What the money buys, in plain terms: chlorine level monitoring equipment and SCADA controls at the elevated water storage tank — the water tower — plus repairs to the tower's heating and electrical systems. The amendment would also cover replacing system valves "to improve connectivity to the low-pressure district," reimburse the city for force-account work its own staff performed, and pay for coordinating the compaction of a Consumers Energy electrical trench.

The fee is split across three contracts already running under the project: $21,500 for the booster pump stations, $36,100 for the water tank and $10,400 for water distribution. All three are billed as time and materials, with the $68,000 total listed as not to exceed. C2AE says invoices go out monthly and are due on receipt. The letter is signed by project manager Adam D. Falkowski, PE, and market leader William J. Kimble, PE, with a countersignature line for the city.

The Current reported on Oct. 15 that the council was being asked to act on the water-fund amendments with no dollar figure or project description in the agenda packet. That was one of four blanks on the Oct. 19 agenda; this letter closes it. The draft five-year parks and recreation plan, scheduled for a 7:10 p.m. hearing and a same-night vote, and the text of Traffic Control Order 243 — which street it covers and what it changes — were still not in the packet.

The water tower work is part of the broader upgrade of Corunna's municipal water system funded through the state's Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which lends and grants money to communities for water system improvements. The letter does not say whether this $68,000 is covered by the DWSRF grant/loan or paid by the city, and it does not give the project's total cost or what the first six amendments added.

What happens next: the council meets at 7 p.m. tonight at the Community Center. The letter requires the city to countersign and return a copy to C2AE's office if the council accepts the terms. The Current will report whether the council approved Amendment #7, and will keep pressing for the parks plan, the text of Traffic Control Order 243, and the reason no first-Monday meeting is listed for November.