Montgomery Took the Low Bid for Its Fourth Water Plant. Every Day Past 500 Costs the Builder $2,500.
By The Magnolia Standard · September 29, 2026
A new well, a new tower, and a contract that puts a price on being late.
The City of Montgomery has hired its builder for Water Plant No. 4. At its September 22 meeting the City Council awarded the job to Schier Construction Company for $8,354,190. Nobody voted against it.
The plant is two things. Water Well No. 6, which the city has described as able to pump up to 1,000 gallons a minute, and an elevated storage tank holding 500,000 gallons. It goes on a site of about 1.1 acres near Old Plantersville Road and Old Dobbin Plantersville Road.
How the price came in
Six companies bid, and the bids were opened September 11. They ran from about $8.3 million to $11.5 million. The design engineer, Baxter & Woodman, had estimated the work at about $9.1 million. Schier was lowest.
The arithmetic: the winning bid is about $746,000 under the engineer's number, roughly 8 percent. The highest bid was more than $3.1 million above it.
Council members asked one pointed question before voting, according to Community Impact's account of the meeting: did the contract cover the whole plant, tank included? Staff said yes, well and tank both. The site is also being laid out for equipment that is not in this contract, such as more booster pumps later.
The clock and the penalty
The city first looked at requiring the job be finished in 420 days. Contractors told it a tighter schedule would push bids up. The council settled on 500 calendar days to substantial completion.
The contract also carries liquidated damages of $2,500 for each day past that. Liquidated damages are a figure both sides agree to in advance, so nobody has to prove in court what a late water plant actually cost the city.
The 500 days do not start at the vote. They start when the city issues a notice to proceed, after the contract, insurance and bonds are signed. If that notice went out November 1, day 500 would land on March 15, 2028. If it went out December 1, April 14, 2028. The council may get an update at its October meeting.
Plain tan, for now
The tower will go up tan. Putting the city's name or any decorative painting on it was estimated at about $75,000, and that was left out to hold down the cost. The tank will have mounts that could be leased to cell and telecommunications companies later. None are leased today.
Who pays
The project is paid for with the city's 2026 certificates of obligation. That is city debt that Texas law lets a council issue without an election. The law does require the city to publish notice first, and if enough registered voters sign a petition in time, the question has to go to the ballot. The debt is repaid over years, typically from taxes or utility revenue as the city pledges it.
The same night, the council moved $54,880.89 in leftover federal pandemic relief money. It had been set aside for work at Water Plant No. 3 and the College Street drainage project, and both came in under budget. Rather than send it back, the city will use it to reimburse eligible public safety payroll in its general fund.
Why it is news in Magnolia
Montgomery is a short drive north of Magnolia. A plant like this is how a small city adds capacity ahead of new rooftops. Our September 15 story on Magnolia's own watering limits showed what happens when a system runs short on capacity in August.
Editor's note: this ran as straight reporting. The contract was awarded in a public vote without opposition, and the figures are the city's and its engineer's as reported from the meeting. There is no second side to the underlying facts.
Sources: Community Impact's September 23, 2026 report on the September 22 Montgomery City Council meeting, for the award, the bid count and range, the engineer's estimate, the 420- and 500-day discussion, the liquidated damages, the tank finish and its $75,000 estimate, the telecommunications mounts, the certificates of obligation and the ARPA reallocation. The dollar gap to the estimate and the sample completion dates are the paper's arithmetic from those figures. Texas Local Government Code chapter 271, subchapter C, for how certificates of obligation are issued and when a petition forces an election. Corrections to editor@themagnoliastandard.news.