The City of Plymouth is moving ahead with a couple projects that would improve water quality and reduce flooding on the city’s east side. The board of works voted Monday to allow Midwestern Engineers to proceed with the design process for the Candy Lane storm sewer project and the Richter Road water main extension.
Utility Superintendent Donnie Davidson said the storm sewer project would install a new pipe from the pond behind Candy Lane down Ferndale Street, to connect with an existing sewer. “A couple years ago, we had some serious flooding which occurred, due to some extremely heavy rains,” he said. “That’s property damage, and at that point, we initiated a study of the area and the watershed. There was some recommendations, as far as increasing the size of the storm sewer which served the area.”
Davidson added that engineering work will take place this year, to allow construction to take place in 2018. However, board members said they may want to hold off on construction, while they continue evaluating the project’s cost effectiveness. It would cost over half a million dollars, but only a few homes stand to benefit.
Davidson agreed it’s a tough decision. “We either deal with the complaints – because it will happen again – or another option that we looked at was the potential of purchasing properties and not necessarily meaning they’d want to sell,” he said. “I’m in the same mindset that you’re spending $600,000 to save $400,000 worth of properties, but that’s somebody’s home.”
Meanwhile, Davidson said the water main extension will tie up a few loose ends in the water system. “The Richter Road water main project is a looping of the system from Baker Street down Richter Road, reconnecting at Jefferson and Warana,” he explained. “The purpose of this is to provide improved fire protection and water quality. Currently, we have two dead ends, one on Baker and one on Jefferson Street, and this would improve our system considerably in both phases.”
Also during Monday’s board of works meeting, two quotes were opened for a new dump truck for the Water Department. Davidson will review them, before making a recommendation at the next meeting.
