MINBURN — Discussion at the July 31 special meeting of the Minburn City Council centered on options for beefing up the system for citywide fire protection and extending city water and sewer service to new houses planned on First Street.
Butch Niebuhr, consultant with Bolton and Menk engineering, discussed options for developing a loop main within the city in order to increase fire protection.
“A looping system would increase fire protection and increase flows,” Niebuhr said, “whenever you have a leak or something, so you can control the system and it doesn’t drain the tower.”
He said the city’s water supplier, Xenia, installed a four-inch main when they took over the city service, a size now deemed substandard.
“It should have been a six or maybe an eight to be able to get you up to fire flows that you need to protect a house,” Niebuhr said.
He said he would work with Minburn Public Works Director Mitch Johnson on a capital improvement plan (CIP) to take to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for review and approval. Possible funding sources for water system improvements include the Iowa DNR, Iowa Finance Authority, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant program.
Niebuhr also outlined options for locating water and sewer lines at lots 12 and 13 on First Street. The lots are currently owned by Richard and Jeanette Reiste and Larry and Connie Latshaw, according to county records, and two developers are looking to build on the lots.
“We don’t have an actual developer,” said Minburn City Clerk Kris Fitch. “We just have people buying lots.”
Niebuhr said a main extension would require a DNR permit, “and that permit process can take anywhere from 15 to 90 days, so it’s not a quick solution to put a main in. But you can, by your own ordinances, allow a service line to go in.”
He said a line with one or two users is considered a service line, in the view of the DNR, but three users or more constitute a water main.
“If you’re just hooking up a service, you don’t have to talk to DNR,” he said. “If you’re talking about improving the main, then you have to get a permit because they want to look and see if you’re actually improving service.”
Bolton and Menk Project Manager Chadd Kahlsdorf accompanied Niebuhr at the meeting. Kahlsdorf said extending city water service to the new houses planned on First Street would cost about $8,000 to $10,000.
“The developer would partly pay for that because it’s his service line, and they have to pay for that anyway,” Niebuhr said. “With the sewer, you’d have to get the pressure line for them to hook into. The line that’s there that comes off that one street, they may be using that for a year or two. The thing that you can assure them is that you’re going to look at completing the whole system, so you may not want to do a lot of landscaping in the front because someday you’re going to be coming up and installing a six-inch main.”
Discussion ensued among Minburn Mayor Kaleb Sharp and Minburn City Council members Travis Connick, Ronnie Allen, Charlotte White and Don Peel. Connick and White were new to the council. Council member Phyllis Moss was absent.
The council voted to seek bids on extending water and sewer service to the lots on First Street.
Also attending the meeting were Minburn City Attorney Beverly Wild and Assistant City Attorney Ashley Beisch.
