City Council considers projects to use COVID stimulus funds

RANDOLPH – The Randolph City Council is considering its options on how to use funds it has received so far from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

During the council’s June 1 meeting, City Treasurer Josh Rayford and City Administrator/Clerk Ben Benton went over various projects that Randolph’s $78,000 in current ARPA money could go toward.

“Some of the things that we could do would be residential build-outs,” Rayford said. “There’s potential for developing some property to add more homes in town.”

Rayford noted ARPA dollars could be used to install more infrastructure for the city, such as expanding Randolph’s water and wastewater systems for future commercial and residential growth.

“We started upgrading our water meters and electrical meters to electronic remote (reading), which gets a better, accurate reading,” he said.

“That’s not a cheap venture,” he said. “Anything with a microchip keeps going up in price. That’s an expensive route that’ll take years for us to get through.”

Benton told council members about another project that ARPA funds could be used toward, referring to information from the JEO Consulting Group, the engineer for the city.

“You guys saw the first proposal from JEO at the May meeting discussing adding sewer capability west into Pierce County,” he said.

Benton noted extending the city of Randolph’s sewer system that direction could spur additional commercial and residential development along Key Road near the Wattier True Value hardware store.

“That estimate was prepared by JEO on April 21, and those costs associated would pretty much consume that first payment that we have of the ARPA dollars,” he said.

Benton mentioned another project that ARPA dollars could be used for in Randolph.

“I was curious what it would take to loop the water line in north of Wayne Street under Highway 20, under the railroad tracks, and finally loop in the water line on the north side of the city to improve the overall water pressure and also improve the fire-suppression capability in that part of the city,” he said.

“You can see there from that cost estimate it’s quite a bit more to extend that water line – to the tune of about $300,000,” he said. “Obviously, our ARPA dollars – even once we get our second installment – still wouldn’t cover the entirety of that project.”

The city is expecting to receive nearly $160,000 in ARPA funds overall, which would cover only half of the estimated cost of extending the water line north along 558th Avenue to the Jackson Street water pit on the west side of town.

“The majority of that $300,000 is the 16-inch steel casing to jack and bore and then obviously the 6-inch water main,” Benton said. “Those two alone add up to just over a third of that $300,000.”

Benton returned to the topic of Randolph updating its water meters and electric meters to ones with the capability of remote reading.

He asked City Attorney Keelan Holloway to talk about how that process could benefit the community based on his experiences working for other area towns.

“A lot of these communities are realizing there’s a bunch of unexplained water losses,” Holloway said.

He noted one of the problems is older meters are not recording the correct number of gallons of water being used.

“Getting the updated meters – they’re actually increasing the revenue, they’re actually getting the revenue that they should be getting for the water that’s being used,” Holloway said.

“They’re finding that it’s paying for itself within a short period of time, like 12 months to 18 months,” he said. “It might be a good investment.”

Rayford asked the council to consider its options on how it wants to use Randolph’s ARPA funds for city projects.

“It’s something we need to start zoning in on and finding a route to utilize those,” he said.

Benton noted if council members hav ideas on how they want to use the city’s ARPA dollars, he and Rayford will need to know about them by the next regular council meeting, which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. July 6.

“Our first budget workshop is July 27,” he said of preparing for the 2022-23 fiscal year. “Josh and I will need a few weeks to prepare any sort of bids or quotes for consideration.”

Floodplain Project Update

The Randolph City Council heard an update on June 1 from City Administrator/Clerk Ben Benton on the community’s ongoing Middle Logan Creek flood risk management project.

On the second phase of the project, he noted Iron Mike Construction of Centennial, Colo. – the contractor – was planning to start working in town on June 6.

“Phase Two is finally going to happen,” Benton said.

He noted the Main Street Bridge soon will be closed so it can be removed while the Douglas Street Bridge will remain open for the time being.

The Douglas Street Bridge will be removed after the Main Street Bridge has been reopened sometime during the spring of 2023.

The 558th Avenue Bridge soon will be closed, too, for removal, though this crossing is scheduled to be reopened by this fall.

“I don’t have a start time exactly on 558th, but obviously we’ll communicate to those that live south of the 558th Middle Logan Creek bridge and give them as much notice as possible that their route into town is going to be different for a few months with that closure,” Benton said.