Notice Of Completion!

Off of the Consent Calendar for the Board of Supes today,  December 6, 2016!

Consent Agenda - Public Works Items:

20. Submittal of a resolution authorizing execution of notice of completion and acceptancefor the construction of the Water Recycling Facility for the Los Osos Wastewater Project,Los Osos. District 2. 

The project has been completed $2,776,491 UNDER BUDGET and ON TIME!!! 

Bravo County of SLO - our District 2 Supervisor Bruce Gibson, former Director of Public Works Paavo Ogren for starting the job, and Project Manager John Waddell for finishing it - and the cast of dozens in SLO County offices who made this giant project a reality! Thanks to all of the many, many people who worked on the many individual parts to this giant project. 

This is a landmark moment for the County of SLO and a giant step forward toward finally addressing our polluted water problem. And especially toward reestablishing comity, once the cornerstone of Los Osos citizen's relationships. The dark, pre-sewer civil war is sunsetting into a lovely indigo underground pool of recycled water.

Dignitary Stuffed Ribbon Cutting Ceremony!!

It is now official. Our swanky new sewer has been officially dedicated, complete with an unexpectedly large boatload of people in govenment who got this plant planned, green-lighted, and funded. It appears that our sewer, for all its grief, or maybe because of it, is quite the public works star. And I will say, it is actually rather gorgeous!

So the ceremony got a bit of a late start, it was to have started at 11:00 a.m., but people kept arriving on the cool red bus rented to schlep us from the cemetery parking place (thanks Los Osos Valley Mortuary!) to the event building—sort of tall carport, the name of which I forgot to get.

Anyway, the official Town Criers were there and I wish I had recorded what they said; it was hilarious, detailed, well written and just plain sentimentally sweet. Thanks to whomever thought to have them at this ceremony - and thanks to Bev and Jerry Praver, you guys were great!!

Bruce Gibson was the Master of Ceremonies. Speakers included Congresswoman Lois Capps, UDSA Deputy Under Secretary Lillian Salerno from Washington D.C., former Public Works Director Paavo Ogren, Project Manager John Waddell.

Present but not speaking, former District 2 Supervisor Shirley Bianchi, District 4 Supervisor Lynn Compton, former State Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, and representatives from various other state elected officials, sorry, I didn't get the complete list.

Thanks went out to a long list of people, including the members of the TAC - Technical Advisory Committee that met about a zillion times reporting out the facts that they found on the sewer issues - financial, environmental, and engineering.

Note: our USDA loan was the largest single amount ever expended by that department.

The cake was very tasty, btw—there were four of them. Here is what I saw (click on any image to see a larger size). AND, the drone hovered capturing the scene!!! Those of us who noticed, waved (I hope we don't get edited out)!!:

The Venue

Town Criers Bev and Jerry Praver

Bruce Gibson

Lois Capps

 Paavo Ogren

 John Waddell

 Fake Scissors

 Real Scissors

The Bus

 Shot  from the bus window - there is water in there now!

They are planting still, although most of it was completed.

 The sign in a ultra cool, hip and retro design!

April 22 Last Sewer Pipe Placed!

Check out KSBY's story on the last piece of sewer pipe going underground!

http://www.ksby.com/news/last-sewage-pipe-in-los-osos-wastewater-project-gets-installed/

John Waddell Project Manager explains that valves, manholes, road repaving and the actual plant construction are still ahead, but that this pipe part anyway, is done.

Yayyyyyy!

Had a BLAST!!

The party to celebrate and thank our sewer construction guys was a huge success! It really was a happy, lighthearted gathering, the way I have imagined Los Osos was before the sewer war took center stage (I can only imagine from what I've been told by old-timers, I came here in April, 2005). This event has started the cleaning out of the cobwebs, acrimony and muck from community sewer discourse.

There was an art show featuring construction scenes drawn and painted by adults and kids, thank-you cards from a school class, a slideshow with shots from various neighborhoods and a really cool video put together from a day's work compressed into a couple of minutes, THREE cakes (the server used a miniature shovel to dish out the pieces), lots of BBQ-ed hot dogs and a variety of sodas, table decor of succulents in sand pails, a wall of photos, a free raffle for some of the art, music by the Zongo Combo, the reading of a cool sewer poem, and some observations from key people on the project; Bruce Gibson District 2 Supervisor, Paavo Ogren Public Works Director SLO County, John Waddell Project Manager, Jim Brantley Construction Manager, ARB's Project Manager and W.A. Rasic's Project Manager (sorry, I failed to write down your names). There was a remembrance of a much loved ARB flagman Ramon Camacho.

The event was created by Los Osos artists Joan Sullivan, Barbara Rosenthal and Jan French. Celebrate Los Osos (Pandora Nash-Karner and Mimi Kalland) helped to organize the event and with getting the sponsors. And various worker bees, myself included, signed up for behind the scenes tasks.

As we used to say where I used to work (creating catalogs of products), "copy smells, pictures sell," so I will end the words with some photos that I took.

PS A much larger sewer art show will be held around the time of project completion.