City hoping dam project costs don’t rise

FREMONT — Mayor Jim Ellis doesn’t expect to receive an extension on a $2 million U.S. Fish and Wildlife grant earmarked for the Ballville dam removal project.

But he’s still hopeful the city won’t have to raise water rates for residential and commercial customers if the city can start the dam removal sometime in 2016.

“If we can get it done next year and cost estimates hold for the other phases, we won’t have to raise rates,” Ellis said.

The dam’s first phase involves notching and slowly releasing sediment behind the dam.

Ellis said earlier this year that the overall estimated cost of the project, including design work, was about $9.5 million.

That’s lower than previous estimates of $10.5 million to $11.5 million for dam removal. The city has $6.7 million in grant funds for the project, he said, which includes the $2 million from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant.

That U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant will be lost if the city does not spend the $2 million on the project by September 2016.

The city has set aside $2.7 million in reserves for the project, which the mayor and other city officials had hoped could be saved and put back into the city’s water fund.

The city has still not received a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Section 404 permit needed to work on the removal.

Earlier this month the Army Corps informed the city that it must conduct supplemental sampling and testing of sediment in the impoundment area behind the dam before the agency would consider awarding the needed permit. Ellis expects a delay lasting one year.

Councilman Joe Michles, one of the more vocal critics of the dam removal project, questioned why the Army Corps of Engineers had not been consulted throughout the process on the sediment questions and possible environmental impacts.

Michles and Councilman Mike Koebel had repeatedly asked Ellis at public meetings whether the Army Corps had awarded the city the Section 404 permit.

When the city council approved a $1.6 million guaranteed maximum price amendment with MWH Constructors for the dam removal project’s first phase in June, Michles cast one of the “no” votes.

“Why are they signing a contract when they don’t have a permit from the Army Corps?” Michles asked.

At that time, Ellis said he anticipated the project’s first phase to come in about $2 million lower than originally estimated.

Auditor Paul Grahl said Tuesday that the city had spent more than $1.9 million already just on studies, engineering and design services related to the dam removal project.

He said most of that money had been spent since 2009 from several city funds, with about $40,000 spent on dam removal-related studies between 2006 and 2008.

Grahl said that not only was the city in danger of losing the $2 million in grant funding for the project, it also spent almost $300,000 on the environmental impact statement for the project. The auditor said the city would not be able to recoup that expenditure.

Ellis said an extension of the deadline for the $2 million Fish and Wildlife grant was not going to happen, what with its being caught up in an appropriations snag on the federal level.

“We’re trying to see if they’ll at least let us spend it on the ice control structure,” Ellis said.

Grahl said it was his understanding that the $2 million could be spent only on work or materials related directly to dam removal.

City Engineer Tucker Fredericksen said the additional sediment testing could cost more than $100,000, depending on how extensive the testing required by the Army Corps.

Ellis said the city had received parameters from the Army Corps on sediment testing and would be looking to find contractors that were able to do the specialized work. He said he thought the city could put the testing out for bid within the next two weeks.

dacarson@gannett.com

419-334-1046

Twitter: @DanielCarson7