City rolls dice on water project

With the clock ticking on the deadline to spend American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, the City of Sundance is moving ahead with its project to fix a water leak on 3rd Street despite not having all the necessary funding.

Clerk-Treasurer Theresa Curren informed the council that the city received $1.5 million in ARPA funds for the project, which is intended to repair a major water leak through which the city estimates it is losing 50,000 gallons of water per day, and to relocate service taps located on an old, four-inch galvanized waterline.

However, Public Works Director Mac Erickson explained in June that the project has grown over time. It now, for example, includes a fix for the failing bridge, for which the council was twice unable to secure funding through a popular WYDOT program.

The two bids received by the city, according to Erickson, are around $1.1 million above the engineer's estimate.

This left the city with a choice, he said. The project could either be split in half and any remaining ARPA money returned to the state by the October 1 deadline to do so, or the city could choose to award the whole project and try to fund the rest with an MRG grant.

"We've come this far – we've got it ready to go," he said while expressing a preference for the second option.

He also noted that it's likely there will be ARPA money turned back to the state from other projects that could not be completed by the deadline and the state would probably prefer not to give it back to the federal government. Opportunities may come to seek further funding there, he said.

"This project finally seals up the bulk of the water system," said Mayor Paul Brooks, advocating for its importance.

"...Pretty much every major leak that we're aware of in town will be repaired."

Erickson added that it also removes all the known galvanized pipe, which the city will eventually need to do anyway when it is inevitably mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Curren told the council that an application for a Mineral Royalties Grant to help cover the remaining $1.1 million was complete and ready to be submitted before the deadline this week.

The council approved the grant application for $850,861. The remaining funds would come from the city's SPOT tax proceeds, Curren said.

The council also awarded the project in its entirety to the lower of the two bidders, Halme Inc.