Marine City gets update on water/sewer project

City manager tells commission funds are running out

By Barb Pert Templeton

Members of the Marine City Commission approved several invoices for items related to the Safe Drinking Water project currently underway in the city. The unanimous approval of the items came after a lengthy report from the city manager about how funds are running out to support the project.

At a July 17 meeting Marine City Manager Michael Reaves asked to have a discussion about work on the watermain and sewer project and explained how funding is running short.

He began by stating that repair work to a storm sewer on North Parker Street by contractor TR Pieprzak was going to cost $116,011. In addition, Reaves said he got two additional quotes for Hill Street and Alger Street for sanitary storm sewer repairs and it will cost just under $30,000 for both.

Right now, Reaves said he’s trying to close out Phase I and Phase II of the project. By close out he said he means they are still working on a number of items but are getting them closer to completion.

He went on to tell the commission that he has to go ahead and pay the $116,000 for Parker Street and the $30,000 for Hill and Alger streets soon.

“We are running out of funds in the sewer/water replacement fund,” Reaves said. “We are extremely low.”

He then said the city didn’t have the luxury of planning all these things and the repairs have to be made as they come along. He said the sewer fund stared with about $995,800

“Very candidly I’m not sure we have enough money left in that fund to complete the repairs,” Reaves said, noting that at this point he’s not planning anymore repairs but who knows.

“Every day is an adventure and we find something new,” Reaves said, as he knocked on the table top.

Going forward, the southern part of the city will have streets starting to close as paving is completed by late July. The paver will do the streets over five days at which time the water and sewer project will stop, Reaves said.

“I have to get those repairs done before they pave,” he added.

Talking about Phase III

The plan going forward is to take quotes for Phase III of the water/sewer project and Reaves said he’s already taking quotes for the engineering work for that phase. He hopes to get approval for the SAW work early enough so he’ll have the SAW report back for the engineers for Phase III.

Reaves offered a guestimate of what the costs might be for that portion of the project.

Replacing the sanitary and storm pipes could be $3 million dollars, the lining another $1 million and new water meters at $700, so let’s say we need $5 million dollars, Reaves said.

At that point he said he would have to go out and find a bond for the money and that can take up to 13 months to be approved but the construction project starts in March 2026.

Finding the dollars to pay for the project, which can’t be covered via the city’s general fund or through specialized accounts, prompts a major challenge.

“I am extremely concerned that if we have an issue, how we’ll respond to it in terms of our finances,” Reaves said. “I told you about a raining day fund, I will not touch that raining day fund, this is not a let’s break the glass moment. I strongly disagree with that and feel we need to figure this out on our own.”

The city is getting down to a point where they have to make some major decisions, he said.

“We currently are burning cash at a significant rate in regards to these numbers,” Reaves said. “I will tell you that many of you here, maybe all of you, weren’t present many years ago, you are going to pay for the sins of the past administrations now. There’s no more kicking the can down the road.”

City Treasurer Katy Posey said the city collects about $150,000 a year for sewer ready-to-serve and that doesn’t even cover one of the recent project bills.

“And so, there’s us hoping nothing else happens and another invoice doesn’t come in,” Posey said.

Infrastructure projects aren’t sexy

Reaves said there’s also the fact that he has to make sure the underground parts are ready for the new roads to be paved because he can’t pave over bad sewer systems.

“One street cost us $216,000 and yes it had multiple intersections with multiple issues,” Reaves said. “What we have been told so far is that we expect the other side (Phase III) to be far worse.”

Reaves said things have been as bad as they anticipated in some spots of Phase I and Phase II but in other areas things weren’t as bad.

“Everyday there’s exploratory digging and exploratory excavation and we find a new gem that we have to deal with,” Reaves said.

The city is also incurring a ton of overtime from the crews who are on the job sometimes six and seven days a week. At times they’re responding to three and four different leaks a day too.

“I don’t think anybody on this board feels good with $130,000 left in the sewer account and another $100,000 in another account and I don’t want to touch a dime of it because I know around another corner I’ll have something I have to deal with,” Reaves said.

He told the commission he’s sounding the alarm to them about what he’s up against with the project at this point. The city can’t just go down to the local bank and say ‘hey I need $4 million dollars’, that’s not how this all works, Reaves said.

“I appreciate that you’re bringing all this to us, I’ve been seeing this for a long time,” Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick said, adding that the city has a waste water plant that’s also in serious trouble.

She said nobody wants to deal with it but the city has to find a way to pay for it regardless.

“I totally understand that this is difficult for the residents and it’s not very popular for me to say but nothing was done for a number of years here,” Reaves said. “Nobody likes to fund infrastructure, it’s not sexy, it’s not a new park or a merry-go-round but it makes a difference

when sewage is coming up in your basement or your toilets doesn’t flush or you don’t have safe drinking water.”