Sewer plans: Engineering contract OK’d

Talk about it

The Jamestown Public Works, Police and Fire committees approved an engineering contract with Interstate Engineering for development of plans to replace the sewer main from Lift Station No. 1 to the city Wastewater Treatment Plant at its meeting Thursday. The project has become necessary due to the discovery of two leaks to the current line this spring.

“This is an emergency scenario,” said Reed Schwartzkopf, city engineer. “The important thing is to proceed with this quickly but not necessarily tomorrow.”

Schwartzkopf said the line carries all sewage from Jamestown to the Waste Water Treatment Plant and has no redundancy in the system.

“It really needs to be replaced,” he said. “It is one of three components of the sewer that has no backup if it fails.”

Total project cost for the replacement of the 7,000-foot line is estimated at between $1.75 and $2 million. After the new line is installed, which is planned for later this summer, the old line would be checked with video cameras to determine if it can be repaired to serve as a backup.

An attempt to repair the old line would require the city sewer system to be shut down for three to five days, Schwartzkopf said. The intent is to continue to use the existing line, despite its leaks, while the new line is constructed.

Funding for the project was discussed with Jeff Fuchs, city administrator, who suggested the possibility of a 3 percent interest loan from the State Revolving Fund.

In other business, the Public Works Committee forwarded to the full commission without a recommendation a request from Stutsman Rural Water to extend its current water purchase agreement until 2030.

Currently, SRW purchases water during high peak usage at the same rate as residences in Jamestown under a 10-year contract that began in 2005. They requested the extension in order to guarantee the availability of water in an effort to secure expansion financing.

“My concern is for the growth of Jamestown,” said Clarice Liechty, mayor of Jamestown. “People building homes out of town have access to rural water.”

Councilwoman Kelani Parisien said paying the same fee for water as Jamestown residents doesn’t subject the rural water user to the same costs as city users because some of the water department’s expenses are covered by taxes or special assessments.

The committees also:

* amended the ordinance concerning parking on streets during snow emergency situations to include any emergency situation and authorize the ordinance to be invoked by any two of the fire chief, police chief or city administrator.

* authorized the Jamestown Middle School to undertake a storm drain stenciling project and authorized funds for printing of brochures.

* authorized a private water and sewer line to connect to the city systems for a condominium project near the intersection of Eleventh Street and Fourth Avenue Northwest.

* awarded a bid in the amount of $42,054 for the purchase of a GMC Suburban to Don Wilhelm, Inc. The vehicle is 100 percent paid for by a grant from the Department of Homeland Security and will be used as an incident command vehicle across nine southeast North Dakota counties.

* authorized the Jamestown Fire Department to hold a pancake breakfast fundraiser at the fire department building as part of White Cloud Days in July.

The second reading of an ordinance dealing with the distribution of the 1 percent city sales tax and the second reading of the ordinance concerning the termination of the tax were withdrawn from the agenda.

“Discussion of those topics was held at the meetings Tuesday,” Liechty said. “It is ready to move on to the April Council meeting where we can take input from the public.”

Sun reporter Keith Norman can be reached at (701) 952-8452 or by e-mail at knorman@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, public works, news, sewer, lift, wastewater, jamestown