LINN — Linn aldermen at a special meeting last Thursday approved a Notice to Proceed for the 2022 Resurfacing Project that will be completed by Higgins Asphalt Paving Company, Inc., for a total of $209,475. 

The project will include the resurfacing of South Third Street, from Hwy. 50 to the south end, resurfacing North Seventh Street, from Main Street to the curve, Benton Street to North Seventh Street to the post office entrance, and North Ninth Street, from Hwy. 50 to Benton Street, and resurfacing South Ninth Street to East Lee Street to the south end, Washington Street to South Ninth Street to South Tenth Street, and South Tenth Street to East Lee Street to the south end.

Aldermen also approved Resolution #1279 authorizing Mayor Dwight Massey to execute and file an application for grant funding through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Financial Assistance Center’s State American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Grant Programs for lead service line inventory, drinking water or wastewater projects. Massey is also authorized to provide reasonably requested information in accordance with the application. 

Aldermen reviewed their options with Bartlett & West for available grant money provided through the governor’s office.

“The governor is taking his ARPA money and giving it to everyone else,” Bartlett & West Engineer Hope Drennan explained. “There are four categories that can be applied for: drinking water, wastewater, lead service line inventory, and stormwater.”

Linn does not qualify for stormwater grants.

Bartlett & West presented aldermen with charts to show how scoring is calculated. Charts consider things like population, unemployment rates, the percent of the population with low to moderate incomes, whether the systems have outstanding debt, and several other technical questions. The biggest factor aldermen can change is the amount of money the city will put forth for each project. Linn can match only $1 in funds and receive no additional points or a 1% to 10% match for two points. The maximum match for this category is 20%, and that would translate to five additional points.

Most cities with which Bartlett & West is working are scoring in the 30s and 40s. Linn is scoring in the mid-50s in each eligible category. 

“Where you guys are sitting is on the high end of what we’ve been seeing, but we don’t know about cities outside of Bartlett & West,” Drennan cautioned.

“You’re not knocking it out of the park,” Bartlett & West Engineer Gary Davis added. “But to get a perfect score, you’d have to be in a world of hurt.”

The city had Bartlett & West work up engineering reports for the water and wastewater projects in 2019-20 through a grant. These projects could be submitted in whole or part to receive the ARPA grant money. Each project will be considered separately on its own merits. 

The water and wastewater grants have a maximum project cost of $5 million each, and the lead service line inventory has a cap of $200,000. Bid applications are due on July 14 and will be awarded in October.

“This is the best grant opportunity that’s come across since we’ve been working together,” said Davis. “You have reports on the shelf. The only thing that needs to be dusted off is the cost.”

Bartlett & West engineers went on to discuss each grant program separately.

WATER PROJECTS

Aldermen approved submitting all the projects for the water portion of the grant, including interconnection with Osage County PWSD #3 and South Clay Street looping, Old Mill Road looping, Jefferson Street looping, Crestview Subdivision looping, South Clay Street looping, East Lee Street looping, Hwy. 89 upgrades, Linnwood Drive upgrades, valves and flushing device additions, Country Bliss Lane upgrades, Linn High School upgrades, decommissioning of Tank #1 and connection to the City Hall Tank, and backup power for the generator in the well house.

The project’s total cost in 2019-20 was $2,080,000, but Davis is unsure of the current price.

Drennan noted that if the bid cost of the project comes back higher than the amount of grant money that is awarded, the city can change the scope of the project as long as it spends the grant money.

“I think we should submit them all,” Alderman Steve Boeckmann. “Let’s roll the dice and see what happens.”

Massey and the other aldermen agreed with this approach and will hold off on the percent that the city will match until the new estimates are known.

WASTEWATER

Bartlett & West has the following projects lined out the Linn wastewater system: complete replacement for control equipment for the lift stations at Blackburn, Hwy. 89, McDonald’s/Hwy 100, and Rt. U, replace controls for both blower buildings, add Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) for all lift stations, emergency backup power for lift stations, HVAC at upper and lower blower buildings, and sewer rehabilitation of sewer lines. 

The cost for all sewer projects in 2019-20 was $1,765,000. 

Aldermen proposed that the LeMar Hills wastewater be added to the list later.

“There were a couple of illustrious contractors who wanted to ignore all the regulations, and so when they built houses, they started tying sewers together,” Massey said. “They are basically running a unified sewer to four or five houses, and it would be really nice to separate those.”

Massey estimated that nine or 10 houses would need to be looked at for this problem.

“We can add those to this pretty easily,” Davis said. 

He estimated that with the addition of the two other projects, the total estimate for the sewer would be close to $4 million.

“That would be a huge project for the city,” Davis said.

“We’d really piss everyone off, tearing up everyone’s yards and stuff,” Massey said.

LEAD LINE SERVICE INVENTORY

“Every water system in the country has to do a lead service line inventory by 2023,” Davis said.

The lead service line inventory does not include the replacement of any of the lead service lines; it simply identifies them. 

“Eventually, they are going to come out with a grant that is going to replace the lines,” Davis said.

Bartlett & West scheduled a webinar on June 7 to explain the process of identifying the lead service lines and their inventory. 

“We’re going to do a lot of work, but we are not necessarily going to dig anything up,” Davis said. 

“It’s not necessarily lead pipes; it can be galvanized pipes as well, correct?” Alderman Bill turner asked.

“That’s right,” Davis said. “What we are talking about is service line. Everything between the house and the water main on both sides of the meter from the house to the water main.”

“So this grant would best serve the homeowners,” Turner asked. 

“Yes, but it’s a requirement from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),” Davis said. “This is definitely a big opportunity. I don’t know what’s going to happen with construction, getting materials, and getting contractors because this is the biggest thing that’s ever happened in most of our careers. This will be something to see.”

“There will be a cost-share for each project,” Drennan said. “We hope to have the cost estimate by the July meeting so we can make a decision on cost share for each project.”

Bartlett & West updated aldermen on the change order for the 2021 resurfacing project. The change order was set to be completed by June 22, but contractors have been delayed due to weather and rain. They now estimate that the project will be completed on June 27.