At the September 5 City Commission meeting, the plans and specifications for the $460,000 filter plant were presented by Lawrence. He reported his intentions to go to Fort Worth the next day to discuss approval of the plan for both the filter plant and the 48-inch pipeline. The plant was to be built close to the waterworks near Sim Park, with a capacity of 32 million gallons daily. The designs showed the building to be 193 feet, eight inches wide with a depth of 126 feet, eight inches, and was said to be carrying out "the Georgian theme in architectural design and will have a brick exterior with stone trim." (Eagle, 9/6/39). Action on the plant was deferred pending PWA approval. Charles G. Yankey, a Wichita attorney, was retained by the city as a legal consultant on the soft water project to work with the overburdened city attorney's office on the many details of the new system.

Shortly after this, the PWA officially approved the pipeline and the plant. Bids were accepted for the five contracts on September 29, 1939, covering the 48-inch pipeline, cone and pressure relief valves, pipeline construction, water filter plant and general construction, and the filter equipment. Estimated costs for the contracts were $1.9 million. Once again the PWA's approval was needed. Three types of pipes were offered in the various bids--concrete, cast iron, and steel. This led to a problem in determining a winner and years later the city would realize that more care should have been taken in making the decision. The Eagle described the meeting as "one of the most unusual sessions of the municipal body in city history." (Eagle, 10/1/39, 9/30/39).

Mayor Frank Coleman and Commissioners Robert Israel, John Dotson, Elmer Corn and Schuyler Crawford met briefly at the regular city hall chambers before adjourning to the meeting in the Arcadia Theater. Thirty-five companies and individuals had submitted bids on the contracts. The commission was unable to make even an unofficial estimate of the low bids on the pipeline, however, since the material costs for the various alternatives could not be determined until construction costs were figured. Therefore, long computations were required. An audience of 250, mainly representatives of construction and manufacturing firms, gathered in a theatrical atmosphere to watch the proceedings on stage. Mayor Coleman opened the meeting, MacDonald explained the process, and R.E. Lawrence and PWA Regional Engineer N.F. Strachan read the bids over a public address system, as City Clerk C.C. Ellis opened them. For the pipeline, seven steel companies, two cast iron manufacturers, and one builder of concrete pipe submitted bids. Three bids came in for the cone and pressure relief valve, ten for pipeline construction, and twelve on the filter plant. It took nearly the entire day simply to read all of the proposals.

After the bids were read, the commission adjourned at 3 p.m. and work commenced to tabulate the results in order to determine the low bidders. It took much of the night. The next day the commission reconvened at 10:30 a.m. to hear Black and Veatch's computations and recommendations. Later that night, the awarded contracts were forwarded to the PWA regional office at Fort Worth for final approval. Since PWA officials were present at the bidding, officials expected an immediate response, allowing work on the 48-inch line to begin within a short period of time.

The American Cast Iron Pipe Company of Birmingham, Alabama, was awarded the fourth contract for a cast iron pipeline at $1,067,590.73. Years later, city officials would wish that less attention had been paid to the price and more to the quality of the material, but for the time it seemed like a good deal. S. Morgan Smith Company, from York, Pennsylvania, won Contract Five for cone and pressure relief valves, with a low bid of $48,154. The sixth contract for laying the pipe was awarded to W.B. Carter, a Wichita contractor, for $233,050.01. Decisions on the remaining two contracts were delayed until the regular meeting the following Monday, October 2. Applauding the city's action the Eagle said, "As a result of the commissioners' businesslike methods in inviting competitive bidding on an equal basis as to materials for pipeline, with a base bid of $1,250,000, the city saved more than $150,000." (Eagle, 10/3/39).

At the October 2 City Commission meeting, the filter plant contracts were considered. The specifications for the bids on the filter plant building, and on the plant equipment did not specify whether a combination bid would be permitted. Subsequently, the Carrothers and Crouch Company of Kansas City, Missouri, stated that its bid of $70,000 for the equipment would be good only if it received the contract for the plant building at $345,050, for a total of $415,050. The lowest bid on the building was made by the George Senne and Company of Topeka, Kansas, at $341,835, and the next lowest bid on the equipment was for $78,250, totaling $420,085, $5,035 more than Carrothers and Crouch's bid. The commission decided to waive the formality and allow the combined bids, letting the contract to the Kansas City firm. Work on the plant began October 18, with the equipment work starting on October 26.

Approval of the three contracts awarded on the 30th was received by the City Commission on October 3, 1939, less than 72 hours after the contracts had been let. A few days later, the approval for the filter plant contract had been received as well. After work began on the pipeline and the plant, the commission intended to receive bids for pumping and metering equipment in the well field, power lines and electric controls, operator's residence, and a control station.

The site for the new filter plant was announced by MacDonald on October 21. It was a vacant tract known as the Stackman property just north of the Wichita Water Company property where the old wells were located. Although the plant came as an afterthought to the soft water proposal, the unexpected discovery of iron in the water necessitated it, and enough money remained in the approved bonds to support it. According to the Beacon, the new filter plant, once completed, would be "attractive in appearance, as well as modern in both structure and equipment as it is possible to make it." It was compared to a "public school structure of the highest type," with a"colonial type of architecture, built of colonial style brick and ornamented with natural stone." (Beacon, 10/29/39). Black and Veatch designed the building under the guidance of MacDonald, to insure its attractiveness. Plans were initiated to allow for rapid construction of the plant, since it was considered the bottleneck in the soft water project which could hold up the completion past the PWA deadline of May 1, 1940.

The entire water system plan would have the water run from the Equus Beds through cast iron pipeline to the filter plant, where it then would be filtered through sand, chlorinated, and led into a three-million gallon reservoir connected by pipe to the Water Company's own reservoir. The underground reservoir and the plant were built just west of the Art Museum tract. The supplemental reservoir, not in the original plan, was added later to insure a sufficient supply.

The City Commission approved the new reservoir for $75,000 on October 25. It was planned both as an economic measure and as an assurance that a plentiful supply of water would be on hand. Funds saved on other contracts would finance it. A majority of the commission felt that the new addition would be cost effective over the years and the PWA representative supported the decision. A little more than six acres were purchased next to the filter plant, at $1,475 an acre.