Staff recommends that City Council approve the MOU with Yellowstone County.
 

Yellowstone County is replacing the water mains at MetraPark.  The Water Reclamation Facility's (WRF) water service is fed through the lines on the MetraPark site.  The WRF uses approximately 35% of the water that is delivered through the water mains so the County asked the City to participate in the cost of the replacement.  The mains are in poor condition and several breaks have occurred in recent years.  City staff reviewed the request and recommends that City Council approve a contribution to the project.  Staff recommends that the City pay 35% of the cost of the main line that provides water to the WRF but only 25% of the looped main. The city does derive substantial benefit from having the looped line primarily for fire flows and redundancy but because it also serves buildings on the MetraPark site, we believe a 25% share is appropriate.  The County agreed to the proposed contribution.  

City Council may:

• Approve the MOU with Yellowstone County; or,
• Not approve the MOU with Yellowstone County.  If the MOU is not approved, the County will not have sufficient funds to complete the entire project which means some existing water main will be left in service and increases the potential for water outages at the Water Reclamation Facility.

The MOU includes a City contribution of 35% of the pipeline cost for the main waterline and 25% of the pipeline cost for waterline loop. The total bid cost for the project is $818,857. The total cost of the City’s contribution is $245,657.  These City's contribution will be paid from wastewater funds as this is the water service for the WRF.  Funds will be budgeted in FY24 and paid after July 1, 2023.