MORAN — Moran City Council members will soon take a closer look at the city’s aging water distribution system.
Council members unanimously approved Monday a vote to hire Schwab Eaton to begin a preliminary engineering study of the water system, to determine the scope of how much needs to be done.
City officials have identified up to 12,000 linear feet of old cast iron water mains that may need to be replaced.
While acknowledging there are multiple unknown variables, Stuart Porter, a project manager with Schwab Eaton, said such projects range in cost from $400,000 to $600,000.
“That gives you a ballpark of what kind of cost you’re looking at,” Porter said.
Porter and Schwab Eaton client development specialist Gary Smith, spent the better part of an hour taking Council members through various options to consider, including funding.
Most communities Moran’s size seek Community Development Block Grants, or low-interest loans from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Revolving Loan Fund, Porter explained.
Earning a CDBG grant may be a difficult task, he continued, because Moran does not have enough low- or moderate-income residents. To qualify, a door-to-door income survey may be necessary. And even then, most grants will require a local 1-to-1 funding match.
On the plus side, there may be no more opportune time to seek a KDHE loan because of low interest rates, he continued.
And, after City Clerk Lori Evans noted Moran already has in its books another KDHE loan the city is repaying, Smith noted the old loan could potentially be rolled into the new loan, to take advantage of the low interest rates.
Paying off the loan likely would require a water rate increase, Council members noted.
“We really need to look at what that would do,” Councilman Jim Mueller said.
Smith said the number of grants Moran receives would play a large role in determining how much rates would increase.
With no grant funding, residents could pay as much as $10 a month extra in water service.
However, a $200,000 grant could pare that added cost in half, to as little as $5 a month.
