City moves ahead with grant for new municipal well

GLENWOOD CITY — The city council took steps to apply for a grant to help fund a new well and well house to replace well number two which is located near the Community Center on the City’s west side.

Wendy Sanders of Cedar Corporation was on hand at the council meeting Monday evening to present the council with a number of resolutions and to explain the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) applications and needed paperwork to get the program moving.

The first item was to hold a public hearing at which local citizens are invited to input any concerns into the program.

Sanders explained the Glenwood City Water Utility’s new well program, Economic Development Grants, local housing authority and other city needs including public facilities. “City well and water are the highest needs in the community,” she told the public hearing. Sanders informed the council that grant money would come from HUD to the state and she estimated that the grant, if the city is successful in obtaining the grant, would be a fifty-fifty cost sharing.

The cost of the new well, water main extension and needed repair to the water tower would cost a million dollars. This price includes a permanent generator at the new well location.

The need for a well improvement program came to light last year when the city received a letter from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources stating a number of deficiencies at the well and pump house. In that letter it was recommended that the city abandon well number two and construct a new facility.

The city hired a firm to inspect that well and determine if it could be used and updated. Although the firm gave a positive report, the council found out that the well could only pump a little over 200 gallons per minute and the old well is located in the flood plain. The new well is planned to pump over 900 gallons per minute.

After several months of studying the options, the council decided to proceed with a new well, pump house, and equipment to operate it. The council accepted the recommendations that the new well be located near the water tower along Third Street on the north end of the community.

During Sanders’ presentation of the seven needed resolutions that the council would need to pass in order to apply for grant funds for the project, former fire chief Carlton DeWitt requested of Mayor John Larson, if he could give some input to the council about the proposed facility. DeWitt told the council that locating the new well next to the water tower is the worst possible location for it. He noted that the new well belongs on the west side of town. He said that putting the well next to the tower would not improve water flow for fire fighting to any spot in the community. “It is best to have water coming from two directions to a fire,” DeWitt said. He indicated that with a well at one end of the water main and the tower in a central location, water flows for fire fighting would be greatly improved. He noted that at the Glenhaven fire of two years ago the four hydrants that were used to fight that fire had water flows from two directions: one from the water tower on Third Street and water from well number three, which is located at Hinman Park, two blocks south of Glenhaven.

DeWitt provided a copy of the City’s Hydrant Flow Data taken by the Insurance Services Office, which showed hydrant flows at three locations in the community where individual hydrants could not provide sufficient water flows to meet the recommended fire fighting needs. One of those was on Syme Avenue and Oak Street and he claimed that keeping the new well and pump on the west side could help address that problem.

But in the end the council passed all seven resolutions that Sanders had provided to get the grant application moving forward. They included a Citizen Participation Plan, Authorizing the CDBG application, Matching funds commitment of about a half million dollars of city money. Councilperson Crystal Booth voted against this resolution stating that she did not like the location of the new facility.

Other resolutions passed included the Fair Housing Ordinance, adopting a relocation plan/anti-displacement policy. Sanders had told the council that no one would be displaced because of the program. Also adopted was a policy of Civil Rights Demonstrations and Prohibiting use of excessive force. Sanders indicated that the city already had such a policy, but asked Police Chief Robert Darwin to review that policy.