Majority of $10 million project to be covered by state grant

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

A new water treatment facility could soon be coming to South Point in New York Mills.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the NY Mills City Council approved a task order to complete the final design and send the expansive water treatment facility project out for bids. 

The cost for the project was estimated to be $10.15 million, a majority of which will be paid for through a grant from PFA. The total grant the City of NY Mills received was for nearly $6.9 million and another $3.25 million will be in the form of a low-interest loan. 

In order to keep the project moving forward, the city council approved the final design and to send the project out to bids. Even though the city has received a positive funding package from PFA, if the final bids are higher than anticipated the city council has the right to not complete the project. 

The current water treatment plant was constructed in the late 1960s and was designed to remove iron and manganese through gravity filtration. The facility has undergone multiple improvements, including a backwash waste storage tank in 1996, a plant retrofit with process equipment and controls in 2001 and a filter media and under drain replacement in both 2001 and 2017.

The supply wells number three and four were constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s and have undergone multiple pump rebuilds/replacements, and piping that was replaced over the years. 

Michael Weber, of Apex Engineering, has stated the current plan is to downsize a new water treatment facility to better-fit the needs of the community. He said the new plant will have a design capacity of 350 gallons per minute, which is down from the current 550 gallons per minute. Weber said downsizing the plant will make it run more efficiently and will still be large enough to meet current and future demand. 

In addition to the water treatment plan, the city council approved a task order to replace at least 16 lines that have been identified to be replaced as part of the lead water line replacement project. 

Weber said all 16 lines, which could be more as there are several water lines are still unknown at this time, are on the customer side of the boulevard and are on private property. He said the Department of Health wants to have all of the service lines that have been identified as being lead or galvanized replaced no later than 2033, but the hope is the work can be done in NY Mills as soon as this summer.

The Apex Engineer provided the city council with a plan that could replace the lines this summer, provided the property owners consent to the project and allow the city to do the work on private property. The total cost for replacing all 16 water lines, out of the 590 customer-owned portion lines in the city limits, was estimated to be $266,000. The city received a grant to cover 100 percent of the project so there will be no additional cost to replace the lines for the residents or city as a whole. 

There are still 48 customer-owned portion of water lines that are undetermined to date and may need to be replace as well should the water lines be determined to be galvanized or lead.  

The council approved moving forward with the project and seeking permission from property owners to complete the necessary work on their property. 

In other news

• Heard the monthly liquor store report, which shows that the combined gross sales for the month of December were up 3.97 percent as a percentage of sales from last year. Net revenues for the month were down 50.27 percent as a percentage of sales from the prior year, which reflects a $19,036 inventory adjustment and the year to date net revenues are down 3.94 percent as a percentage of sales from the prior year.

• Heard the monthly fire department report that showed the fire department responded to 299 calls for service last year, which was similar to years past. The fire department also had its election of officers as follows: chief- Nick Roder, first assistant chief- Ryan Brasel, second assistant chief- Matt Geiser, secretary- Kurt Fallen, treasurer- Nic Pederson, rescue captain- Tyler Muehler, training captain- Brandon Marsh, safety- Kacee Skoog, maintenance- Shanon Kline and Kacee Skoog.

• Heard the monthly police department report that showed 118 calls for service during the month of December that included four citations, 12 parking tickets, 14 warnings and two arrests. 

• Heard the monthly public works report that showed the utility department performed a gas distribution patrol for the fourth quarter that focused on ice and snow around and above gas meter on all structures. The utility department took three days to mitigate issues throughout the service area and the patrolling will be done throughout the winter. There were also five new picnic tables that were built to replace the existing tables that were unable to be repaired and the utility department will work on building a few more throughout the winter as weather and time allows. 

• Acknowledged a grant of $575 from the NY Mills Community Fund for the South Point Walking Trail project. 

• Acknowledged a donation from the estate of Gloria Aske for $3,800 for the NY Mills Fire Department. 

• Held a closed meeting to discuss a potential land sale between the city and a private property owner. No action on the potential sale took place following the closed session.