A long overdue update.

Around the end of June the report was put into a draft version.  It was presented at the July Board meeting of the District for their review and comment.  The costs look to place the average user (5,000 gallons per month) in the $54 to $58 range.

Right now the District is discussing the water purchase with the City of Hiawatha.  Back on August 15th, the District and the City met at a work session meeting and discussed some possibilities.  Overall, it was a good discussion and things should keep progressing from that meeting.

Time for a long overdue update!

Here is a quick update on things, but the District met in May, there was 48 signups and the District agreed to proceed.  The agreement was sent to the District's attorney for a quick review, and once back it would get signed.  Around the 2nd or 3rd week of May one of our summer interns began looking at how this system would lay out.

Now some of you may be groaning to yourself, "Oh! They put the new kid on this project?  What are they thinking!"  Some of you may actually know our intern, his name is Adam Olson, or the son of the District Bookeeper, Teresa Olson.  Adam grew up in Hiawatha and is working his fourth summer at Bartlett & West.  Originally he went to a great college, Kansas State University, but decided to attend some other school between Topeka and Kansas City.

Starting on a tangent here, but when I first learned about the U.S. Civil War we were taught that the Union forces had more troops, more training, more funding, and were well suited to win the war.  As the Union marched southward, they encountered land they didn't know.  The Confederate forces on the other hand knew the lay of the land.  They knew where the river crossings were, how deep the forest was, where the cliffs were, and all of the details that the Union forces were completely clueless.  Tying this in to the subject of the post, Adam may not talk with a southern accent or eat grits and gravy, but he grew up around this area, traveled these roads, and knows where you can go and where you cannot.

The layout and sizing of the piping is in draft form.  Some recent changes in the PVC pipe market have caused pipe prices to fluctuate so we are checking on PVC prices and also looking into HDPE pipe as an option for this expansion.  Right now, some preliminary pricing has been developed, and we are working to figure out how that will break down to a "cost per user" number.  The goal is to have a draft of the report available to the District by the last week of June.  Once we are comfortable with the layout of the piping, project cost, and the projected cost per user we will post these to the site.

I have some draft posts that I may try to finalize in the upcoming weeks.  These will be about the different funding agencies available and where it comes from on the national level.  Another topic will be on the PVC versus HDPE pipe.  Both pipes get the water to you, but there are differences in how it gets assembled.

Well, I hope this update is enough to let you know that things have not went idle and things will get hammered out in the coming weeks.  Take care.

Three more signups for

I thought I would share that we got 3 more signups today.  Here is a link to the latest image.

Have a good day.

No more signups today, but here is the map from yesterday..

As usual, the purple dots are signups, green is interested but not signed up, and red is not interested.  Here is a link to the full size image.

Thanks for the support and enjoy!

We now have 45, trust me.

Three more signed up.  One of them was down near US-36 and the other two were in the north half of Section 32 in Township 1 South, Range 18 East.  I left work before I had time to make a new map with the 3 new signups.

I plan to update the map on Wednesday evening.

6 more signups on the 25th - that makes 42!

As the title says, we received 6 more signups today and that makes 42.  Below is the most recent map and here is a link to the full size image.

So where do we go from here?
Now that there is 42 signups, any additional signups will just make the situation better.  I will be preparing an agreement for the study that will be presented for the District's consideration at the May 2nd meeting.  Once the District approves the agreement, work will begin to figure out pipe sizes and the routing of required pipelines.

Can more people sign up?
At this point, we have enough signups for direction.  The deadline for the required signups was the 25th, but since we have enough signups anyone can continue to sign up.  As of last week, some additional households were identified along 310th Rd. that  have not received any contact.  Letters were sent out to those individuals and given until April 29th to respond.

So how much longer can people sign up?
Well, the April 25th deadline was to make sure there was enough support.  Any signup from now until the May 2nd board meeting will not do any damage and will only help.  What about after May 2nd?  The default answer is to contact the District office at (785) 474-3407 and just ask.  Never hurts to ask, right?

Thanks again for all of the support and we will try to keep everyone updated as things progress.

Add 3 more to the list because we have 36.

As of Friday's mail check, 3 more checks came in for a total of 36 signups.  As usual, below is the latest map with the purple dots representing signups.  Greens are positive interests that have not signed up, and red is decliners.  For the full size image, click on this link.

The mailbox won't be checked until Monday, so until then everyone have a good weekend and a great Easter.

Connecting the dots and we are up to 33!

As of today the District checked the mail and so far 33 checks are in for signups.  We have had some initial "no" responses that have sign up, and we have also had some other people that never responded sign up.  I know of a couple individuals that are out spreading the awareness of this effort and it is greatly appreciated.   Below is a map, but if you want to view the larger image click here.

Status as of 4-20-11.  Purple dots represent sign up with green dots representing interest and red dots are people that were not interested.

I want to share a personal story so bear with me.  I live in Shawnee County and our house still has a septic tank and lateral field on a 1/2 acre lot.  The county now requires you own a minimum of 5 acres for a new house.  If you want some sticky clay soil you can come dig in my yard.  There are about 96 houses all on septic systems in what used to be an 80-acre tract.  A couple years ago, we got a lot of spring rain and the lateral field was at its limit.  

I went went from house to house asking if others would be willing to petition for sewer improvements.  There was a family with four daughters and the dad dreamed of the day that their back yard wasn't a soggy mess.  I met a neighbor that just finished paying for a completely new septic system and he didn't want to let that go to waste.  There was a guy that had two separate lateral fields, and another neighbor put a pump in the basement floor drain and ran a hose out to the front ditch when it rained.   One neighbor said he pumped his septic tank to the ditch at night whenever it got overloaded.  Finally, there were the bachelors in our neighborhood that are not around much and their systems never get overloaded.  We still have a septic system, and I learned that getting out and talking to the neighbors isn't always easy.  If you do support this I encourage you to get out there.  If there are any questions please contact the District at (785) 474-3407, and you can call me at (785) 228-3119. 

The question has come up if we are lacking a few sign ups after the deadline on the 25th, will we extend the deadline?  Right now we are close to the target of 40-50 customers and we could have 40 by next Monday.  The District has their annual meeting in May so there could be some days added on, but please let the District know that a check will be a few days late, or if you are trying to convince a neighbor.

I won't take any more of your time, thanks for the support and let's see how many more sign up!

We got 7 more signups! We are now up to 24 total.

Checking the mail today brought in 7 more signups.  The original "yes or no" mailer received around 50 positive responses and 24 people have signed up.  The feasibility study can go through with 40-50 signups.  Anything from 35-40 will need some review and under 35 will need a good hard review if it is worth putting the numbers and effort together.

Map of signups (purple dots) as of 4-15-11.  Click on this caption for a larger size image.

Hopefully everyone got their crops in the field before this rain and the upcoming week will give everyone a chance to read this and send their check in if they are still interested.

If we had $150 for every tractor in the field the study would be paid for by now!

As I drove up to the White Cloud Casino last night there were a lot of tractors out in the field.  Since everyone was making use of daylight and good weather I think this affected the attendance at the meeting.  The second meeting on April 11th was to inform anyone who missed the first meeting so if you attended at least one of the meetings you got the information you needed.

At the end of the meeting 17 checks had been collected.  A map of the area has been provided below to show the the interested households.  Since this posting is on the internet, I have left names off the map.  If you want to know what neighbors you need to talk to give the District office a call at (785) 474-3407 to get names.

Map of potential expansion area.  Customers initially interested in water are green with the declining person marked as red.  Purple dots represent applicants who have paid $150 for the study. (Click on the caption for a link to a larger image.)

At this point in time, if you are one of the purple dots, look at who lives south of you and talk to those neighbors.  The idea is to connect to existing District pipelines to the south and continue northward.  The more customers that sign up between you and the pipeline, the better chance that we can get water to you.

The deadline for checks if April 25th, so we have just under two weeks to get the final number of checks.  I am planning to keep an updated map on this blog so everyone can see where we have a yea or a ney.

Good luck!

Second Meeting for Rural Water District #2, Brown County

Hopefully by now everyone has received the announcement about the second meeting at the White Cloud Casino on Monday night, April 11th.  If you have any questions, we hope to see you there.  Right now, there are 5 parties that have paid the $150 fee.  Not quite there, but the deadline for the final payment is April 25th so we have some time.

If you plan on submitting your $150, I would like for everyone to fill out the questionnaire as best as possible.  First, it helps out with the planning when it comes to estimating usage.  If there isn't any planning, a dairy can create a lot of pressure problems when they wash down.  The application also helps determine potential health issues that can be used in consideration when applying for funding.  If we told USDA Rural Development that we wanted to connect 50 customers that already have a super clean abundant supply of well water the people at the agency would be scratching their heads.  If we can show that there are wells with various problems or issues with supply then it helps USDA provide funding.

Spring is definitely here and everyone is cleaning up from the winter, getting ready to go out in the fields, out working in the fields, or a million other things.  If you have any questions, we hope you can find the time to break away from all of the work and let us know what you think.

Rural Water District No. 2 Expansion - Purpose of this Blog

Introduction
On March 7th, 2011 a meeting was held by the District to discuss the expansion of Rural Water District No. 2, Brown County to the northeast portion of Brown County.  At the meeting, 38 people attended representing  approximately 27 households.  An earlier inquiry to 127 houses by the District showed that 51 people were interested in water, 26 people declined, and 40 did not respond.  The remainder returned, unable to forward.  In order to expand, the District needs to take some steps to look at the costs and benefits for everyone involved.

Feasibility Study
The first formal step is a feasibility study which will look at the infrastructure such as piping, pump stations, and water towers required to provide water to all of the interested people.The feasibility study will then examine the costs for construction and calculate the cost per unit to build the improvements.  Since the District does not have enough cash on hand to pay for the improvements funding will be needed.  The report will look at available funding sources as well.  The study will serve later as a support document for the funding applications.  For this feasibility study, the District is asking for $150 per applicant to support the feasibility study.  If the District proceeds with the expansion the $150 will be credited as part of meter connection fee when customers are brought onto the system.

Petition for Expansion
If the costs are favorable then the District will move to formally add the area to the District.  Depending on the location of the people interested, this will dictate the shape of the area.  The petition needs at least 50% of the land owners in the designated area to sign and then it will be formally filed with the County Clerk and also approved by the County Commission.

Design & Funding
Once the petition is approved the the design and funding phase will begin.  Each project is different, but usually the funding agency is made aware of the project early on in the design.  The applications, environmental reviews, and any other funding requirement usually occurs while the project is in the design phase.  Once the funding is secured then the project can move on to the next phase.  Due to the various programs out there, separate postings will be made for each of the entities to explain them further.  Links are provided at the right side of this page for each of the programs.

Bidding and Construction
Once things can go to bid, the invitation is mailed out to contractors and interested bidders will pick up a set of contract documents.  Bids will be opened at a set date and time and the bid is awarded to the lowest responsible bidder.  The winning contractor will then be given a set amount of days to complete the construction.  Once construction is finished and the water is flowing then the final paperwork is completed.

Typing this up was tremendously easier than what it will physically take, but this is a general overview of how the process will go.

How to use this blog

Here is a link of the blog page image with some markup on what things are, where things will appear, and how to sign up to receive updates.  Take a look, and above all feel free to contact the District if you have any questions.