April 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
Water project nears final completion; tower project moves ahead
But the town has saved so much money from the originally $2.9 million project that there will be enough to nearly fund a renovation of the town water tower.
The Hope Town Council was told Monday by the project supervisors at Strand Associates that the water system improvement project is almost done. The butterfly valve that is needed to finish the connection to Eastern Bartholomew Water Co. has still not arrived, Strand representatives explained.
The contractors have a year warranty on work including street resurfacing and grass replanting. In August, Strand will take a walk through to re-evaluate those items for any repairs that need to be made.
Town Manager J.T. Doane said that the town has more than $400,000 left over from cost savings on the project. Most of the funding came from the state revolving loan fund, but also a smaller portion came from a matching grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
The council agreed to put the leftover money toward a project to refurbish the water tower. Doane said the last time the tower was refurbished and inspected was in 1998, meaning it was due again in 2018. The town will need to have the tower refinished on the inside and painted inside and out, before it can be inspected, Doane said.
The majority of the funding would come from the $331,000 left over from the loan, Doane said.
However about $70,000 of the money from the grant will need to be returned unused, Doane said. Because of the limitations on the grant funding, it has to be spent with a 4:1 matching donation. And the use of the funds are limited and could not be spent for the water tower update.
The project to refurbish the tower will take about two months, town officials estimated. Utilities manager David Clouse said that the loss of the tower will not affect water pressure for residents, but it could cause problems for firefighting.
In other business before the Town Council:
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