On Tuesday, Jan. 27 the Hart City Council received a presentation from Barbara Marczak and Matt Hulst of Prein & Newhof Civil Engineering (P&N) on their recent evaluation of the city’s water system and the plan moving forward to update the aging infrastructure. The company has already created a similar evaluation and plan for the city’s sewer system, the execution of which is already underway.
From the evaluation, P&N took an inventory of the city’s water system assets - 7 production wells, 20 miles of distribution pipe, 2 elevated storage tanks, 1 booster station, 279 valves, and 170 fire hydrants - and found that a majority of these assets date to the 1950s or earlier. Of the city’s seven wells, two are no longer in use, and the newest well is already 50 years old, 20 years overdue for an upgrade.
As explained by Marczak, the importance of managing these assets and creating these plans is to “prevent emergencies before they happen,” citing the Hart and Main Street water main break in March 2024 as an example. Understanding which assets are outdated and how essential they are to continued service are essential facets to creating a plan. “All these things wear out, and you need to be able to plan for replacing them at some point.”
This - alongside the city’s capital improvement plan, the funding of these systems, and meeting state and federal government standards — was analyzed to create 5- and 20-year improvement plans for the city.
According to Marczak and Hulst, the first five years of the plan are the most critical, and the following 20-year plan is made to change with the city’s master plan, as much of the asset management is created to fit alongside other planned city improvement projects. Said Marczak, “We look at other improvements that are needed… so we try to pick things that need a new road surface and water and sewer together, so we’re just digging once.”
For instance, many improvements to the water lines are scheduled in tandem with the downtown and State Street streetscape projects.
As he detailed the big-ticket items for the following 20 years, Hulst explained that replacing lead service lines will be a “significant expense for the city.” Of the 960 services, 690 have or had lead assets and subsequently need replacement by 2037, as mandated by the EPA. This project alone would cost $504,000 per year over a 10-year span, though the projected plan is divided according to the cost and intensity of other yearly water-improvement projects.
Other enhancements to the system include services on Polk Road, State Street and East Main Street; well upgrades; and water-main looping systems to improve circulation through the city.
CPA Andy Campbell attended and gave the council an overview of the financial burden expected from this plan and what can be done to meet these expenses. The City of Hart is far from the only municipality facing an aging system. It's estimated that it would cost over $625 billion to update the degrading water systems across the country. Part of the purpose of the asset management plan is to display to state and federal governments that a comprehensive plan is in place, as well as making it easier for the city to respond to grant opportunities.
As it stands, the city has been awarded some grants already - such as the one financing P&N’s evaluation - but it will be nowhere near what it would take to cover the cost of the projects. The first five years alone are expected to total at least $8.1 million by 2030. While the state has many grants available to fund these projects, many favor “overburdened” or more economically disadvantaged communities, which Hart is not considered. Said Marczak, “You are not the only ones in this boat, everyone is trying to get this money.”
After grants, the two other options for financing the projects are to speak with State of Michigan legislators and ask for budget earmarks or to raise the city’s water rates.
According to Campbell, Hart’s water rates are low compared to other municipalities he works with across the state, citing that the base residential rate is $6.44 per 1,000 gallons of water, with the “typical” home’s water bill being $12.47 per month, compared to the average $45 a month Campbell speaks of anecdotally. This figure is separate from the city’s sewage bill, which has gone up to accommodate that separate system update.
Campbell and P&N recognize that there is no clear answer to this issue, with the former explaining that “this is going to be a tremendous question that the city has to, ultimately, rely on council and consultants to help figure out the solution…”
While the water asset management presentation was the most significant aspect of the Jan. 27 meeting, City Manager Nichole Kleiner had a positive update to share with the council. JSJ Corp has approved an easement agreement with the city to allow access to the water tower, the land of which the city had mistakenly sold to the company in 2003. As Kleiner explained, “This would be the first step. The second step would be to look at replatting the whole area over there, cleaning things up and actually aiming to own that property.”
This also would allow the city to draft a lease agreement with AT&T to allow the cell company to place antennas on the water tower, which would provide another form of city revenue.
