Update: La Cygne council approves seeking grants, loan on final phase of water plant upgrade

With just a couple days notice, the La Cygne City Council will be hosting a town hall meeting tonight to discuss continuation of a water plant upgrade. The meeting will be at 6 p.m. at the community building next to city hall. (Journal file photo)

Update: With two city councilmembers unable to attend Wednesday's meeting the council voted 3-0 to apply for a grant, a construction loan on a project expected to cost as much as $5.9 million and 40-year long-term financing of a project that will replace a deteriorated 30,000 gallon clearwell with a 500,000 gallon underground clearwell, pumps and filtration system.

By Roger Sims

linncountyjournal@icloud.com

LA CYGNE – In an event first announced on Sunday, Aug. 30,  La Cygne City Council will hold a town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2, to discuss the cost and economics of a proposed water system upgrade that began about four years ago.

The debate on whether to continue with the third phase began earlier this summer when a discussion on building a half-million gallon underground clearwell for more than $4 million dollars was discussed. An updated estimate on the project during the Aug. 19 council meeting puts the cost at more than $5 million.

Councilmember Kent Wade, one of four council members who took office last January, said he was against completing the final phase if La Cygne taxpayers are footing the bill for the project.

Of the five members on the council, only Jerome Mitzner was on the council when it made the decision to make upgrades to become a regional water provider. He said he still supported completing the upgrade, however, the remaining three council members have not committed themselves on the issue.

At the Aug. 19 meeting, City Clerk Jodi Wade discussed the options for obtaining a grant to make the cost feasible. She said after the meeting she hoped that a combination of grants would cut the price of the project down to $3 million or less. The rest of the cost would likely come in a long term loan that could be amortized over as much as 40 years.

She also said she would advise against completing the third phase unless those grants could be obtained.

Earlier this summer when Kent Wade first questioned the project, Jodi Wade developed a spreadsheet that demonstrated cost savings by supplying more water to customers could reduce the price to city customers.

Residents of La Cygne would not bear the cost of the improvements alone, according to the city clerk. The cost of the upgrade would also be built into the price other water systems pay for their water.

The city council most recently added the Linn Valley water utility to its customers, which also includes Linn County Rural Water districts No. 1 and No. 3. Both of those rural water districts buy most of their water from Public Wholesale Water Supply District No. 13, which also supplies Mound City, Parker, Fontana, Blue Mound, Linn County Rural Water District No. 2 as well as districts outlying counties.

However, PWWSD No. 13, which relies mostly on Kritzer Lake west of Mound City, has recently told the city of Pleasanton that it can only take that city on as a customer on an emergency basis. This year, Pleasanton is looking for a backup water supply after it was apparent that the roof on the city water plant’s filter building could collapse. However, some city officials have said that No. 13’s quote of more than $600,000 to connect to that water supply made that unlikely.

As the current drought and heat wave continue, the demands on water from both the wholesale district and La Cygne likely will remain high.

In the 1990s, La Cygne made some upgrades to its water treatment plant and did so planning that sales to rural water districts No. 1 and 3 would help cover the costs. But when the wholesale water district went online in the late 1990s, both those rural districts switched suppliers.

The city filed a lawsuit against both water districts for reneging on contracts, and the lawsuit was eventually settled by the rural water districts agreeing to continue to purchase part of their water from La Cygne.

Jodi Wade said that the grants the city will seek to reduce the cost of the clearwell will have competition from water districts that are not as far advanced as La Cygne’s, and those other district might be viewed more favorably by state funding sources.

At the same time, Dan Nasalroad, director of city public works, has said that the construction of  new clearwell, whether it will hold 500,000 gallons or half that, is inevitable.