The Castle Valley Special Services District discussed the 2004 planned projects at a recent meeting. Darrel Leamaster announced that the district will set the bond closing as Mar. 17 in Salt Lake City, and will then at that time receive the bond and grant money. There are six projects scheduled for the summer of this year.
First on the schedule will be the chip and seal of Castle Dale streets. Craig Johansen suggested that the district advertise for bids in February, and start the project about June 1. The next project will be curb and gutter projects, and Johansen recommended bids be opened in March, for a start date of April 1. Then he suggested that bids be opened in April for the city streets and drainage projects, which should start May 1. Following that, the Water/Sewer/Secondary Pump project will begin, having bids open in May and the project begin on June 1. Next were the Ferron sewer projects. Johansen stated that the plans and specs should be completed by May 1, and suggested that bids for the outfall line be opened about July 15, with the rest of the project being put off until September, so that by the time they reach effected fields, the crops will be done for the year. The district approved the proposed schedule.
In regard to the Ferron sewer project, Leamaster announced that the land purchase from UP&L will close next week. The district is still trying to obtain right-of-way from a few properties that will be affected, and are looking at possible alternate routes. Leamaster also informed the mayors that they needed to inform UP&L if any of their upcoming projects required power poles to be relocated, as soon as possible.
The district then reviewed the engineering contract with Johansen & Tuttle. The contract was compared with past years projects and the district approved the new contract for the 2004 year.
Next the district discussed the Little Bear Spring Mitigation Project. The designs are currently being worked on, drawings should be done in March. Leamaster announced that the district had finally received a “pilot study waiver” from the Division of Drinking Water. He is hoping to advertise and begin construction around June or July and have the project completed this fall. The only thing needed is to get the agreement in place between Genwall, Energy West and CVSSD.
The district looked next at raising water and sewer rates. It is required to hold a public hearing, and the district decided that they would prefer to have each city hold it’s own public hearing. They would like to publish a few newspaper articles to raise awareness. They are looking at raising culinary water and sewer $3 a month starting July 1. Leamaster would like to have all public hearings held in March or April.
They would like to show comparisons with other communities such as Carbon County and Green River; and also show the loss of mineral lease money; property tax happenings and also show the services provided by the district that residents are not being charged for here, that they would be charged for in other areas. Some of these benefits are that the district maintains and installs sewer laterals, whereas other communities make the homeowner do their own; the annual cleaning is provided at no additional cost; and the replacement and maintenance of fire hydrants.
The district has not raised the rates since 1977. They would like to show the difference in material costs from 1977 to 2004. The bottom line is that the income is not covering the expense of the service provided.
The 2003 Culinary Water Usage report was reviewed. The total district use was 462 million gallons, which is the lowest it has been since 1994. Each community has used less culinary water than last year. The average usage per gallon per person per day was about 156. The state’s average is around 300.
Leamaster quickly reviewed the snowpack report and stated that there is usually a lot of precipitation expected from now until April, but if we do not receive it, we will have about the same amount of water as last year.
Leamaster also announced that the district had received the Disinfection By-products Sampling Waivers. Since 1999 the district has had to test the water for chlorine by-products that can cause cancer, if too much chlorine is fed through the system. Since 1999, the district has stayed under the regulated amount. Now that they have received the waivers they can reduce testing from once a quarter to once a year, in August. As long as that test stays under regulation, then the county can remain at once a year testing.
The district will be changing the time of their monthly meeting to 7 p.m. until Daylight Savings, when it will return to 7:30 p.m.
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