City looks to pandemic funds for water project

The City of Sundance is hoping to tap into American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to replace an old and leaking water line, but to do so will require assistance from the Crook County Commissioners.

The current project to replace the Sundance Kid water tank and the lines leading from it under the interstate allowed the city to bore new lines down 3rd Street. However, funding limitations required them to stop at Alden Street.

Karla Greaser of Trihydro, City Engineers, has been tasked with looking into the feasibility of taking a new water line clear down 3rd Street, Clerk Treasurer Kathy Lenz told the council last week. The new line would then go under the park and creek.

“We have a bad leak there,” said Lenz of the creek portion of the current line.

“Not as bad as it was before, but it’s still bad. I think that water line is 17 feet [in depth] there, it needs to be re-bored and we’ve run into situations where we’ve had trouble getting the water back on to a few [customers] this side of the bridge, so it’s a focal point as far as the ARPA money.”

Both the city and county received lump sums from the ARPA fund earlier this year, and it comes with strings attached, said Lenz. Water and sewer are among the allowable expenditures but, she pointed out, the county isn’t in the business of water and sewer.

When the commissioners decide how to disperse those funds, Lenz said the plan is to meet with them to ask if they might be willing to provide some assistance.

“Our project is quite large, our estimate to do that on that whole line is $600,000,” she said.

“They don’t have that kind of money, they have about $750,000, but it would be interesting if we could partner or they would be interested in helping.”

While their presence at last week’s meeting of the commissioners suggests that the Carlile and Aladdin water districts also have an interest in the funding, Mayor Paul Brooks questioned whether they would have the manpower to apply for and manage a large grant.