BWD Engineering Committee - 10/2/09

The BWD Engineering Committee held a meeting this past Friday at the new Water Treatment Plant. According to Board-of-Director President Mike Ryan the meeting was called to issue the Permit to Proceed for Part A of the Salineville Water Project and to discuss potential expansion of the water district. Present were Engineer Committee Chairman Chuck Bibbee & committee member Tim O'Hara, BWD Solicitor Fred Emmerling, board member Jack Whitaker, Dave Sugar of Dave Sugar Excavating and Jon Blair of Dallis Dawson Associates.

Dave Sugar Excavating was the winning bidder on the $2.7 million contract for Part A of the Salineville Water Project. Mr. Sugar was there to put the final dots on all the i's by signing the multiple documents involved with that contract with Emmerling notarizing each and every one. Sugar advised that he will have two crews starting once parts are received. One crew will begin on Osborne Road near the Red Brick Church with the second starting on Forbes Road. He expected he will be starting a week from today. Sugar noted that with today's economy parts manufacturers are not stock piling anything. They are waiting for firm orders before producing any parts. Sugar has a March 7, 2010, deadline to complete Part A which is nearly eight miles of water line, valves and fire hydrants. It will run from Osborne Road to just past the Southern Local School complex.

The second part of the meeting was a brain storming session on possible expansion of the water district. Committee Chairman Bibbee said the mission of the water district is to improve the infrastructure of the county with a reliable water supply to make it attractive to new business locating here. Board President Ryan noted that it is expected that additional grant money for such projects will be available in the near future. Having "shovel ready" projects on the shelf ready to apply for such grants has proven successful in the past. "Shovel ready" means the project has been engineered with plans and cost estimates figured and are just waiting for funding to become available. The Salineville project was "shovel ready" and presently there is only one other project ready.

Bibbee noted that there are many areas in the county with residents having to restrict their water usage from their wells. In some places it is so bad that people only do their laundry once a week or even flush their toilets once a day. Also it was noted that the EPA is becoming increasingly restricted on well water quality for potable water. The day may come when well water won't be permitted for drinking and cooking.

At today's prices a mile of 8" diameter water line costs in the neighborhood of $250,000. The first phase of the Salineville project is 16" diameter pipe which is going to cost around $400,000 per mile. One board member noted that a neighbor had to have his well redrilled recently and it ran around $7,000. The tap-in fee per home is presently $3,250. It seems like a very high cost until you compare it to alternative costs. Also arrangements can be made to have that fee spread out over a three year period at 0% interest. Arrangements are also available with the County Treasurer to have tap-in fees made part of the semi-annual real estate taxes.

Two areas as potential customers immediately drew attention. One is the Rogers community and the other is Frederick Heights and two other housing developments in that vicinity. Both areas are on well water and it was noted that it would be relatively simple to supply with existing water lines already in place that are heading in those directions. These are just two of the potential areas that were looked at. Many others were discussed and it was suggested that if anyone would like to have a reliable source of quality water they should contact the Buckeye Water District. Everything would be considered.

In the mean time it will be recommended to the full Board to authorize a couple of projects to be engineered to be "shovel ready". If approved the first thing to be done would be a survey of potential customers in an area.

The next regular meeting of the BWD Board-of-Directors is scheduled for Thursday, October 15, at 9 A.M. at Wellsville Village Hall. Part B of the Salineville project is expected to published for bid this Thursday, October 8.

ole nib