SG R-II Approaches City About Waterline
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By MARK EVANS
STE. GENEVIEVE HERALD
Dr. Paul Taylor, superintendent of R-II Schools, addressed the Ste. Genevieve Board of Aldermen during a work session Thursday regarding the need for better water pressure at the district’s future early learning center.
The school district is hoping the board will agree to change its time line and put new six-inch waterlines along Maple Street sooner than planned.
“One of the significant issues that we ran into with attempting to put an early childhood center at that location is a six-inch water main does not exist up to that property,” Taylor said. “So down at Ninth and Maple is where the six-inch water main, as far as I’m aware, six-inch water main terminates into a four-inch water main, and then that travels the rest of the distance up the hill. So we had to adjust our first bid package and pull off the utilities from that bid package because we’re kind of stuck until we know where we are, and I wanted to bring the information to you, make you aware of it, see if there was an opportunity to adjust the time line.”
Taylor said the school district does not want to do anything “that has the potential to negatively impact residents in that area,” such as by lowering the water pressure.
The waterline project along Maple Street had originally been scheduled for 2025, but is looking more like 2026, now.
Ward 2 Alderman Bob Donovan agreed that the water pressure in that neighborhood is poor.
“Any impact on it would definitely have a negative impact on the rest of us,” he said.
Much discussion was held about right of ways/easements and how much the street and sidewalks would be torn up in laying a new water main. There is also concern about having enough eater pressure to have an adequate fire suppression system at the new facility.
Welch said he and Steve Wilson, local manager for Alliance Water Resources, are not sure exactly how far up Maple Street the six-inch main goes.
Taylor noted that the site work without utilities case in at $273,00, a number the district was happy with.
Donovan said that with the district owning 12 acres and the 310,000-square foot building only taking up about ¾ of an acre, what else is planned for the parcel. Taylor said mainly playgrounds and parking areas.
“How we’re able to utilize the rest of the property with the slope that it has and then right off the back we have some citizens electric, electrical poles off the back is going to be limiting going down the hill,” he said. “Plus I think there’s some conversation about a retention pond down there, the opportunity to do that. So we would be looking at going up around that substation and it goes out into the field a little bit that we own. That’s a narrow property.”
In the end, the board agreed that it was not opposed to the idea of the proposal and that it would be open to receiving formal proposal from the school district at a later date.
PROPERTY ISSUE IN CLOSED SESSION
The other item on the work session agenda was obtaining easements for the St. Mary’s Road sidewalk project. The request and paperwork have to follow certain patters related by the Federal Highway Administration and the Missouri Department of Transportation.
Cochran Engineering recommended BHE LLC to oversee this part of the project.
The board voted to go into closed session to discuss this item.