Title
Approval of Task Order No. 4 (Amendment #2), AGR20-48c (Amendment #2) with Wilson & Company in the Amount of $164,306.18 for the Purpose of the Remaining Engineering Services for the Jemez Mountain Regional Fire Protection System
Recommended Action
I move that the Board of Public Utilities recommend Task Order No. 4 (Amendment #2), AGR20-48c with Wilson & Company for the purpose of engineering services for the Jemez Mountain Regional Fire Protection System in the amount of $164,306.18, plus applicable gross receipts tax and forward to Council for approval.
Utilities Manager's Recommendation
The Utilities Manager recommends that the Board approve the motion as presented.
Body
The Jemez Mountain Regional Fire Protection Project has been planned for years and progressed slowly through various jurisdictional approvals. The project will convey water from the existing potable water system in Los Alamos to Pajarito Mountain to provide domestic water to the Pajarito Mountain ski facilities, Camp May campground and provide a reliable water supply for regional fire protection and snow making. The existing 240,000 gallon non-potable water tank located in the vicinity of the Ski Lodge will be re-purposed to a potable water tank and will be able to be refilled as needed to provide fire protection to the Pajarito Mountain ski facilities. The existing water tank is now filled once per year from snowmelt runoff. In addition, the existing 10 million-gallon snow making pond located at the top of Pajarito Mountain will remain full year-round as a water resource for fire-fighting for the Jemez Mountain region. This will be a valuable fire-fighting resource, as opposed to Cochiti lake and Abiquiu lake that are much further away. The new water system will also provide a reliable water source for the Pajarito Ski hill snow making operation. This will allow the ski hill to have a consistent snow-pack and operate every year. The community will benefit from the thousands of skiers contributing to the local economy.
The project has been broken into 4 Phases and is currently in its last phase of the project as a whole. Phases I & II included the installation of 23,000 feet of 10” waterline with a shared trench that included 4” fiber conduit and a 6” electrical conduit, which was completed in May 2026. The Phase IV of the Project included the building of a new 500,000 gallon water tank, which consequently has been in operation since November of 2025.
The remainder of the work is incorporated into Phase III and will include the construction of the four booster stations, connection and disinfection of the existing water line, disinfection of the existing Camp May Hill Water Tank and the removal of the existing overhead power line that will be placed into the new underground system.
Wilson & Company was initially hired by the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to design the system in 2016, then hired by Pajarito Recreation LP in 2021 to modify the design as a private system. Due to the longer time line of finishing the projects design and construction additional cost in design and construction have been encountered. This Amendment #2 if approved will be for additional design and construction services to finish the remainder of the project. Construction services with the current contractor will be completed in spring of 2027 but closeout documentation and project deliverables by Wilson & Company will end in January 2028. This includes but not limited to providing engineering support during the remaining construction, contract support, provide closeout certifications, and as-built drawings as required by the funding agencies.
Alternatives
If the task order is not approved the project will be delayed and options to perform the engineering will be evaluated.
Fiscal and Staff Impact/Planned Item
The total project cost is estimated at $18 million. The 2022 and 2023 New Mexico Legislature and Governor awarded $7,000,000 and $900,000 to Los Alamos County for construction of the water line for the Jemez Mountain Fire Protection Project. Los Alamos County and Pajarito Recreation LP have mutually agreed through a development agreement to fund $2 million dollars each towards the construction of the system and split the cost by 50% each up a total project budget of $18 million. The original Task Order No 4, AGR20-48c for the Jemez Mountain Fire Protection Project was paid by the state grant award. This amount of $164,306.18 will be shared 50-50 between DPU and Pajarito Recreation LP.
Attachments
A - Task Order No. 4 (Amendment #2), AGR20-48c
B - Wilson & Co. Amendment #2 - Additional Scope - Jemez Mountain Regional FPS