$3.7 million approved for Discovery water line

(11/21) The Discovery Water Main Replacement Project has been on the Town Council’s agenda for over a year and promises to be a very expensive project. Discovery, a community outside of Walkersville town proper, utilizes the Town's water services with additional fees even though it is not technically in town. The pipes used in Discovery are old and the last five water line breaks have been within Discovery, thus putting them at the front of the repair list. An estimated 600 homes would be affected by the replacement process.

Replacing a water main is a large undertaking because it first involves installing a temporary bypass that keeps water flowing to residents during the repair period. Machinery is brought in to excavate a trench in the location of the old water main, tear out the old pipes and replace them with new pipes. Everything is then tied back into the water system and finally, the residents are put on the new line.

For large projects such as Discovery, it is customary to have three bids, allowing the Town to choose the best price and service for their needs. The last time bids were announced for the project, only one company offered a bid to the Town. At the time, the Council decided to research comparable projects in neighboring municipalities before agreeing to the large price tag.

At November's meeting, almost a year later, Town Manager Sean Williams announced that town staff recommended accepting Mid Atlantic Utilities estimated bid of $3,661,325. This amount includes covering contingency items, which is a specific amount of money set aside to cover unforeseen costs or risks that may arise during the project.

Commissioner Bob Yoder asked how the Town could afford such a large price tag. Williams assured the Council that it was possible with how the project is broken into phases. "Phase one is large because of ARPA funding. Once the project is awarded, we can scale it back if necessary to ensure we use only ARPA funds," he said.

The Town has about $2.8 million available in ARPA funds dedicated for this project and they must be officially awarded to the project by the end of the year, pursuant to ARPA’s requirements.

Phase one is intended to cover about 163 single-family homes out of about 650 homes in total. That is about 75% of the single-family homes alone. "We are doing the areas with the most issues first," said Williams. At this time, the first phase does not include any townhomes.

Commissioner Betsey Whitmore-Brannen asked what could happen over the next few years with inflation issues if they scale phase one back and have to find the funds for a larger phase two. She pointed out that the bid came in $172,000 less than the inflation rate average over the past two years. "What’s going to happen over the next two years? Would it be more fiscally responsible paying for it all now?" she questioned.

Williams replied that there would need to be difficult discussions in the Town’s future. "We are going to have to really change the way the Town does things," he said. "Even with water rates going up over the next five years, we are going to need to start looking at grants too."

With that in mind, the bid was approved for $3,661,325 and Mid Atlantic Utilities will now begin work drawing up plans for the replacement.