City water rates set to increase

Water rates in Hill City are set to increase. 

At the Oct. 14 Hill  City Common Council meeting the board voted to approve a resolution increasing rates by  3 percent effective Jan. 1.  The resolution states that the current rates have been reviewed and have  been determined to be insufficient. According to city finance officer Stacia Tallon the combined monthly minimum rate will be $20.80 per 1,000 gallons of water. 

After a lengthy discussion the board decided to table a request to purchase a snowblower attachment for the Bobcat. The discussion, which took place after the town’s first  seasonal snowfall, centered around the need for the unbudgeted nearly $7,000 item. 

President Dale Householder questioned the necessity of the attachment, saying, “I can’t see how we’re gonna efficiently use this machine.”

Alderman Carl Doaty agreed with Householder saying that with “these bigger storms I honestly don’t know how it’s gonna work.”

City administrator Brett McMacken, who presented the quote to the board on behalf of the public works department, said that the attachment would only work if the city could notify businesses that snow removal would be taking place, allowing city employees to come by with the Bobcat, funneling snow from the sidewalks directly into a dump truck. He conceded, though, that there would still likely be piles on Main Street even with this attachment, and that the real benefit would lie in only touching the snow once. Without a demo of the unit the board was not convinced. 

The town received several complaints about snow removal  after the first storm of the season dropped about 14 inches of heavy wet snow. McMacken praised the efforts of the Public Works Department who “have been working really hard” to clear streets. The town makes the business district its first priority after snowstorms and added “we really want to do the best job we can” for everybody.

The dozen or so complaints the city received were mostly in reference to driveways being plowed in. McMacken admits that all four public works employees need “a best approach” to the streets and that the first snowfall requires “everybody getting back into snow mode.”

The council discussed street paving and its proposed residential street paving plan. The board appears to be leaning toward moving forward on engineering studies, despite concerns over funding options and the availability of an engineer. The town engineer is too busy to create plans prior to next spring.

“We need to have movement to get this done,” said alderman Jason Gillaspie. 

Householder agreed that the town needed to have a “show of faith we’re moving forward on things.” 

There is hope that if a federal infrastructure plan is passed there may be money for road paving for  shovel-ready projects. And while  McMacken said that  that type of funding is usually reserved for streets that provide a “critical path” to places like fire stations or the like, the board requested he look into available engineering firms that could study at least one road, Newton Ave., in a timely fashion.

Engineering for Newton is approximately $34,000 and paving it will cost about $155,000. Where paving dollars will come from has yet to be decided. The idea of a special assessment  might be “something worth entertaining,” according to Doaty, as a means to  move this thing along.” It will cost approximately $3 million to pave all the remaining gravel roads in town.

The council also discussed two parameters of the BID/public restroom/community center project at length. The board voted to approve a $24,105 modification to the project for the purpose of adding and compacting engineered fill to meet with the recommendations of NTI, a company that verifies technical specifications of construction projects are met.

While the aldermen questioned why soil testing for the project wasn’t completed prior to site work, they did feel the expense warranted action.

“For the amount of money that we’re putting into the building we might as well do it right,” said Doaty.

The scope of the work will include furnishing  one foot of clean ballast rock with a fabric layer under the building foundations and  digging out and replacing 18 inches of native soil with basecourse under the floors. 

The board approved an authorization to proceed with a bid for the alley and parking improvements, with the hopes of beginning construction of this phase of the project around April 1. The alderman discussed  possible ways to save money on this phase, including electrical considerations and demo of existing structures by city personnel, but will wait to see what bids come in before determining on how to proceed.

The next Hill City Common Council meeting is Oct. 25 at 5:30 p.m.