The Cheney City Council took the first steps towards dealing with the city’s water production issues at its Oct. 24 meeting.
The council approved a public works department request to apply for a loan from the Washington State Department of Health’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. If successful, funds received would be used in the redrilling of the city’s well No. 3, estimated to cost approximately $1.8 million.
Well 3 was originally drilled at a depth of 549 feet in 1960, producing around 900 gallons per minute. That production eventually diminished and dried up completely in the last several years, with city attempts to rehabilitate it not proving successful.
Faced with production issues over the past several years that have forced the city at times to implement water restrictions, Cheney officials are hoping redrilling the well will produce a portion of its original gallons per minute production, given its proximity to the city’s two main, highest producing wells — 1 and 2 — and Eastern Washington University’s well.
According to the DOH website, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund “makes funds available to drinking water systems to pay for infrastructure improvements.” Funded by federal and state money, the program’s “low-interest pre-construction and construction loans or grants to publicly owned (municipal) and privately owned drinking water systems” can range in repayment structures from six to 20 years, and in some cases, offers partial forgiveness.
Public Works Director Todd Ableman told the council the DOH has $20 million in funds available for this financing cycle, which ends Nov. 30. The city should know if it was successful rather quickly, however the funding writing process won’t begin until 2018 and expenditures aren’t allowed before July 1 — after the city begins engineering of the well.
“We’ll need to work that out,” Ableman said of the engineering expenses.
The council approved a resolution for a preliminary plat for the Golden Hills subdivision’s phases 5 and 6. The resolution makes two changes to the original plat approved in 2004 by decreasing the number of lots from 68 to 66, thereby offering larger lot sizes, and increasing the number of R-2 (duplexes) lots from 21 to 23.
The mix of lots under the approved resolution is now 43 single-family and 23 two-family residences. The city’s Planning Commission approved the changes at its Oct. 9 meeting.
Council also approved a renewal of an agreement with Divco for heating and air conditioning system maintenance at City Hall, the utility building, recycling center, police and fire stations and the Wren Pierson Building. City Administrator Mark Schuller said the only change to the contract was the addition of the fire station, which had been using a different contractor for the HVAC work.
Finally, council approved receipt of a two-year $30,000 grant — $15,00 per year — from the state’s Office of Public Defense for public defense services with the municipal court, and a request to apply for grant funding from Spokane County’s Community Development Block Grant program.
If successful, the city would use the money for water main replacement working on North Third Street from Elm to Cedar streets.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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