Members of the Canton Township Board of Trustees unanimously approved a fee of $34,812 for renovations and maintenance at the Heritage Park amphitheater pond during a regular meeting earlier this month.
Leisure Services Director Greg Hohenberger explained to the trustees that the lone bidder on the work was Rigero, LLC. The contract will address the issues at the pond, he said, and will include the installation of Bio-Health pods in the 3.59-acre pond. Funds for the work will be re-allocated from 2020 tree management budget.
Hohenberger explained that over time, chemical treatments and dyes have covered and killed algae in many of the ponds owned by the township which was a “temporary fix to the algae issue.”
Throughout the years, weeds and algae were treated within the ponds and the remains would then settle to the bottom causing a mucky sediment. As the weather became hot and dry, this sediment would create more algae creating an “unhealthy and unsightly pond area,” he said.
In 2019, Rigero, LLC workers applied the same treatment proposed to a much smaller pond near hole number seven at Pheasant Run Golf Club.
“In just two seasons, the treatment proved to be a huge success motivating staff to continue this process with some of our larger, more visible ponds throughout the Canton-owned properties,” Hohenberger said in his report to the board members.
Rigero, LLC will be using a Bio-Health Pods System, which is a 24/7 non-chemical treatment, providing aeration, “while generating and distributing mass quantities of beneficial bacteria that aggressively consume and digest bottom muck, and excessive nutrients suspended in the water column reducing the effects that lead to algae blooms,” he added.
Hohenbberger noted that additional treatments, if necessary, will be subject to the Rigero standard price list and that any individual purchase orders more than $10,000 would be referred to the board members for approval.
