Tekoa to overhaul water system with $3 million plus

The Tekoa city council is moving forward with a $3 million-plus plan to overhaul the city’s water system. The council Monday night voted to sign a contract that would bring in enough funding to replace all of the old pipes in town and provide new fire hydrants.

Approximately 40 Tekoa citizens attended a public hearing before the council signed the contract. Now passed, the cost of the overhaul will raise citizen water rates $17 a month by 2013.

The measure will use a $2.9 million loan and $1.2 million grant from USDA Rural Development.

Mayor John Jaegar, in an interview Tuesday, explained the loan would be paid back over 40 years at three percent interest.

Water rates for the town are at $38.50 minimum currently. Now that the town has taken the loan, rates will rise by $5 this January, 2011. In January, 2012, rates will rise another $5.

In 2013, they will rise $7 more, bringing the minimum water bill to $55.50 for all water units in the town of Tekoa. By 2013, the town will be bringing in roughly $263,000 per year from the new water rate.

Tekoa has a populaton of 820 people.

Jaegar said roughly half the money from water rates by 2013 will go toward the water pipe construction loan, an annual payment of about $127,165.

Citizens had opinions on both sides of having their rates raised. Jaegar said some citizens sounded agreeable to having the town water system upgraded, while others did not.

Larry Hagan is in favor of the proposed construction. Hagan served on the Tekoa council for 20 years and this water project, he told the Gazette, was hatched while he was on the council. Hagan thinks the town council did well to act now with the grant money available.

“It’s just an opportunity now that there is some grant money available. We need to jump on board and take out the 40 year loan and increase the water rates to pay the loan back.”

He pointed out the old, faulty pipes under the city streets are losing water.

“We’re losing 30 percent of the water we pump out of water main lines. That’s just unconscionable,” Hagan said.

Citizen Gail Seavy-Miles spoke out against the construction cost, saying she already can’t afford her water bill. She urged the council to consider other options like an auction or holding events at the town’s Empire Theater.

“My main concern is that they aren’t looking outside the box,” Seavy-Miles said in a later interview with the Gazette.

The town also received a grant in the summer from the state to rebuild their town water reservoir and a new well. They are interested in putting on a new retaining wall and new roof.

The state department of commerce awarded $993,000 to Tekoa in a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) in 2010 for the water tank.

Inspection crews discovered two years ago the Tekoa city water tank roof was badly deteriorating along with the tank’s exterior concrete walls. The city tank is more than 40 years old and holds 450,000 gallons.

Crews will remove the aging roof of the tank and build a new one. They will also place a new layer of reinforced concrete on the exterior of the reservoir.

One of the three Tekoa wells failed last year when a layer of soil in the well shaft crumbled and fell on the pump located at the bottom of the well.