CHANDLER — The city’s financial advisor has been asked to see “what the market bears” as offi cials consider financing improvements whole or in part to its wastewater treatment plant.

“The enginner brought in three different scenarios,” city administrator Jim Moffeit said. “Originally, the cost for that expansion was $1,032,500. To add the lift station and clarifier, it is going to be between $500,000 and $900,000. We might be better off doing the whole thing, payment wise.”

The plant off Noonday Road operates with a clarifier, oxidation ditch, screener, chlorine-contact chamber and drying bed. The city wants to add a second clarifier so that one can continue to run while work is performed on the other. Currently, the single clari- fier runs 24 hours a day, making it impossible for workers to perform maintenance on it.

A report by Everett Griffi th, Jr. & Associates shows improvements and repairs worth $2.7 million are needed.

The most pressing needs include a lift station and second clarifier.

“We’ll just have to see how it goes,” Moffeit said. “It’s kind of a situation where we could probably pay for this with funds we already have. But we always want to have three or four months of operating money set back.”

The Noonday Road plant, the city’s second treatment facility, was built in the 1980s. The Everett Griffith, Jr. & Associates report recommends:

•Raising the oxidation and adding a new aerator and two air blowers

•Building a second chlorine contact chamber

•Installing a new sludge dewatering box

•Reconfiguring new piping around clarifiers and chlorine contact chamber

•Replacing two sludge pumps

•Replacing the entire electrical system

•Building a new climatecontrolled facility

•Adding a generator

•Building a new “allweather entrance” road to the plant

•At the Noonday lift station, installing a new well with piping, adding two new pumps, installing new electrical components

•At the Crist lift station, installing a new well with piping, adding two new pumps, installing new electrical components, and adding a six-inch sewer main, manholes, and service connections

•Adding valves, lines, fire hydrants, and other materials to water lines for Main Street, Martin Street, Noonday Road, and State Highway 31.

•At the water well on Redbud Road, installing a new well, relocating elevated tank, and adding piping, electrical components, and other materials.

The work would take an estimated two to 21 months to complete.

Chandler’s wastewater treatment plant relies primarily on gravity-force sewer mains to deliver waste. In areas where that is not possible, five lift stations pump waste to the plant.

Once waste water is treated through a four-step process, the clean water is redistributed into Lake Palestine.

The plant is permitted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to treat 500,000 gallons of waste water per day.

Moffeit has said the city could use bonds, certifi- cates of obligation or other revenue sources to finance the project.

Chandler’s budget is about $3.2 million.