The City Council of Webster City agreed with consultant Snyder & Associates to hire a construction manager at risk — CMAR — to manage the rebuilding of the city’s wastewater treatment plant at its meeting Monday.

It marks the first time this method of project management will be employed in Webster City, which previously has used the traditional design-bid-build approach.

Use of CMARs to manage large capital projects has been increasing in Iowa. Two examples include the April 2025 announcement by the City of Oskaloosa that it had entered into a CMAR agreement with Carl A. Nelson Co., Burlington, to manage construction of the city’s new swimming pool. The City of Sioux City, cited expected improved cost control, better quality workmanship, and a guaranteed maximum price as reasons for hiring Kiewit Infrastructure Co., Omaha, for the two-phase, $470 million project.

Before July 2022, Iowa code required projects funded with tax dollars to use either a design-bid-build or construction manager agent project delivery method. Now, with CMAR authorized in Iowa, the city has the option to hire a firm to oversee the project from design through construction to completion. Hiring the CMAR early in the design process has been shown to provide better outcomes. Once the design is finished, a process in which the CMAR will have played a key role, it typically subdivides the project into smaller packages and puts them out for bid.

A guaranteed maximum price — GMP — may or may not be part of the final contract. When a GMP is quoted by the CMAR, experience shows initial costs often exceed traditional design-bid-build costs. It is hoped, through better project management, the CMAR can hit the agreed-upon maximum price, and avoid costly change orders.

Darin Jacobs, of Snyder & Associates, has been working with local companies to estimate the required capacity of the new plant for decades into the future. It’s expensive to over-build, but with an accurate forecast of industrial use of wastewater facilities, and factoring in modest population growth, the plant can be right-sized for its expected useful life.

Jacobs’ work will be valuable in providing an accurate set of specifications for firms to more accurately quote the project.

Snyder will now ask four firms to complete a request-for-proposal to manage the wastewater plant project work as a CMAR on the wastewater plant, and to submit proposals to complete the work. The firms were selected based on their qualifications and experience, a chief advantage of the CMAR process, rather than being required by law to accept the lowest qualified bid under the design-bid-built system.

Firms that will bid on the project include Woodruff Construction, Ames; Story Construction, Ames; Tricon Construction Group, Dubuque; and Wendler, Inc., South Amana.

Councilman Matt McKinney, who was not on the selection committee that was composed of City Manager John Harrenstein, Nick Knowles, Darin Jacobs and Councilwoman Megan McFarland, asked if the four firms selected have experience in wastewater treatment plant work.

Jacobs replied, “All four had projects similar in size, complexity and technology to our project.”

Harrenstein said, “The committee believes a final design for the plant can be firmed up next year, and if we’re lucky, we could even see ground-breaking next fall.”

In other action, the Council received an offer to purchase city-owned property from Angela and John Harrenstein. The property is located off Wall Street on the city’s west side. As with all offers for city property, the matter will now go to a public hearing at the December 15, 2025, City Council of Webster City meeting at 6:05 p.m. at City Hall.

Also, Mayor John Hawkins thanked “all the hard-working city employees who cleared snow from our streets over the weekend.”