City engineer says plans need to be made to provide adequate supply in area of medical center

Talk about it

Reed Schwartzkopf, James-town city engineer, presented a report on the possibility of water shortages in the area of the new Jamestown Regional Medical Center during a meeting Friday.

Present were representatives from the city, Stutsman Rural Water, Jamestown Hospital and North Dakota State Hospital, among others.

Schwartzkopf’s concern is how to supply water for future development in that area after the Jamestown Regional Medical center is built.

“There would be stresses to the existing system,” he said. “There could be severe mid- to long-term problems with water volume there.”

Schwartzkopf defined the area as about a rectangle bounded by Interstate 94 on the north and stretching about a half mile south running from the new location of the Jamestown Regional Medical Center to the State Hospital.

“If we don’t work together on plans for this area I can see a time four of five years in the future where there is $1.5 million in infrastructure that is useless,” Schwartzkopf said.

Current plans for this summer’s construction include a water line to the Jamestown Regional Medical Center and a new water line to serve as a backup service to the State Hospital.

The State Hospital is currently served by a single water line. In the event of a failure, the facility could be without water. The construction cost of the backup line, running from U.S. Highway 281 along Country Club road, will be paid by the State of North Dakota.

Both the State Hospital backup line and Jamestown Regional Medical Center will be served by the water tower near Lloyd’s Motors.

“If we had to provide water to the Jamestown Hospital and the State Hospital it would max out the system under certain conditions such as a fire,” Schwartzkopf said.

Another concern was additional development in the southwest area near the new hospital. If only enough water capacity is piped into that area it could limit future development and require each development project to design its own water infrastructure link to the city.

“But the biggest concerns comes from (Fire Chief) Jim Reuther,” Schwartzkopf said. “Fire insurance rates may go up across the board if the water supplies are not maintained.”

Schwartzkopf suggested the city cooperate with Stutsman Rural Water, Jamestown Hospital and the State Hospital to come up with a long-term plan to construct a water main around the area near the hospital and the addition of a water tower near U.S. Highway 281.

Rural water would possibly be able to tap off the city water lines and serve its potential customers south of Jamestown.

This concept was questioned by Mayor Clarice Liechty.

“A water tower was built east of town a few years ago for development that never occurred,” she said. “If we built another water tower and no development occurs south of town we’ll have two unused water towers.”

Liechty also questioned the city’s ability to supply enough water if Stutsman Rural Water was allowed to tap into the city water lines.

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

Tags: local news, news, water, development