2001 September Newsletter - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

20-YEAR CAPITAL CITY PROJECT UPDATE IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM from City Engineer Dave Mitchell PRESENTED TO CITY COUNCIL A Capital Improvement Program (CIP) was presented at Production Wells the August 20, 2001 City Council meeting, outlining The pump house for Well No. 3 is under construction and major expenditures for the next 20 years in the City of is on schedule to begin providing water for the City's Sys- Hugo. Earlier this year the Council hired Springsted, Inc., tem this fall. The City Council has authorized the City a Minnesota company that provides financial and Engineer's office to begin work on Well No. 4. Sites will be management consulting services to government agencies, evaluated, and it is anticipated that the new well will be bid to work with City officials and citizens to put together a 20-year CIP to coincide with work to the City's later this fall. Construction of the pump house will take Comprehensive Plan. place next summer, and the well will be providing water to the City's system in the fall of 2002. The CIP identifies over 200 capital projects totaling more than $91 million in expenditures, such as public buildings, Water Tower major equipment purchases, and infrastructure, including sewer,water, storm sewers, and road reconstruction. It also The foundation construction has been started for the new looks at how these capital needs will be financed without water tower, located immediately northwest of the causing significant changes in the City's tax rates. The CIP Creekview Preserve 3rd Addition, northwest of the current was presented at the Council meeting, but the more west terminus of 159th Street North. The contractor important component is an interactive computer model expects to complete the column of the tower this fall. The which will enable the City to instantly see the impact of water tank will be completed next spring. The City expects changing any of the parameters involved. the new tower to be operational in the summer of 2002. Nick Dragisich, senior vice president of Springsted, Inc., Water Main Extensions who worked with the City on this project, gives an exam- ple of how the computer model will work. "The staff can Construction is nearly complete for water main extensions enter what they think their growth is going to be and what to connect Well No. 3 and Water Tower No. 3 to the City's the capital needs are for that growth, and the computer existing water system. The contractor will be completing program will come back and say, based on your current tax final testing and restoration work before the middle of rate and your current fee structure, here is what your finan- September. cial projections look like. If these aren't acceptable, you can look at things like changing your tax rate or your user Peloquin Industrial Park fees or putting a project into a different year—there are an infinite number of possibilities you can adjust to see what This project will provide sewer and water utilities to the works best for any given situation." The model is user- Peloquin Industrial Park area and will include the extension friendly, so City workers can use it on their own, changing of sanitary sewer from the southeast corner of the parameters to look at different scenarios. Creekview Preserve development. As part of the project, the street and storm sewer system will be improved to meet The CIP was developed in interactive sessions with City City standards. The contractor has started de-watering to staff and Council members at public meetings, as part of an remove groundwater from the area where pipe will be interactive process. Dragisich adds, "I think that's really the beauty of it—the computer model allows for a very par- installed. Sanitary sewer pipe installation will begin this ticipatory process in developing the CIP." City fall. The contractor anticipates completing most of the Administrator Mike Ericson adds, "We now have a very project before the end of the year. Final paving and effective long-term planning tool to accurately predict not restoration work will be done in the spring of 2002. only what we're going to do, but how we're going to pay for it and what impact it will have on the budget.