Marion projects move forward

Published 11:22 am Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Several ongoing projects in Marion are moving forward, the town’s Board of Aldermen was told Tuesday.

Town Engineer Shaun Miles said residents should start to see activity on the north end of town later in the week as contractors begin clearing the site of the future water treatment facility. Davidson Hauling, which was awarded the project in May at a cost of $43,767, is set to begin work by Friday, he said.

The arrival of the contractor will mark a milestone in a project that has been in the works for several years. In September 2022, the town was awarded a $3.4 million grant through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build the new facility. When complete, the plant will provide clean, fresh drinking water to the northern part of town.

Construction of the plant has been delayed as the Corps of Engineers conducted environmental studies of the proposed site, which is located near the Pleasant Acres subdivision.

Progress is also being made on work to address the town’s wastewater infrastructure, Miles said, as a project to run cameras throughout the roughly 50,000 feet of pipes goes out to bid later this week. Bids are set to be opened Aug. 20, he said.

Marion previously inspected and made repairs to its sewer lines on the south end of town around 2002, Miles said, and the north side of town was done around 2008. This project, however, will encompass the entire system, he said.

“The good thing is we’re doing it all at one time, so we’ll have a good baseline of where we’re at and what needs to be done,” he said.

Running the cameras through the lines will likely take a few months, Miles said, and provide the town with good information about the condition of the lines, areas that need immediate attention and plans for future projects.

The work is set to be paid for though Marion’s allocation of money from the American Rescue Plan Act. The town received $300,000 from the ARPA program and was given a 2-to-1 match by the state for a total of $900,000. Miles said the town may not be able to address every problem but it should be able to tackle the immediate needs.

“We’ll get the worst ones first and then we’ll concentrate on the areas in the future on future projects when we can get funding,” he said.

Aldermen also discussed a potential project to remodel town hall to make the building better suit the town’s needs. Miles said there are several possibilities to make better use of the space, but input from the board is needed to move forward with the project. Once he has a better idea of what all the remodel needs to include, he said he can calculate some engineering estimates of what the project will cost.

Town officials will also need to decide how to fund the project, whether that be through bonds, grant funding or a combination of the two. Several grant opportunities are available that could help reduce the cost, including rural development and small municipality grants and community development block grants, Miles said, but the grant process is the slower option. If the town wants to move forward quickly, borrowing the money is the fastest way to go.

Another thing to consider in planning the project is the temporary relocation of town offices, Miles said. The construction phase of the project will likely last several months, during which the town’s government will need to continue operating from somewhere else.

The Board of Aldermen will hold a work session at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 23, to further discuss the remodel project and work out some of the details needed to move the work forward.