At the regular Rico Town Board meeting held on Aug. 15, Public Works Dennis Swank reported that Century Equipment sold the backhoe to the company that was renting it. The town will look for other backhoes. Mr. Swank stated he is working on the streets that were ruined by lots of rain and flooded. While reading meters, he found some leaks in the meter pit and they are repaired. He is also working on the loader buck and welding on worn plates. The grass has been cut at the town park and around the courthouse.
Town Manager Michael England said that the water project has been moving forward, however it is slightly behind schedule at this point. BWR Constructors anticipate bringing on another crew, so there will be two separate crews installing pipe beginning this week. The 900-foot bore through the S curves should start the week of Aug. 13. To date BWR has installed approximately 1,400 feet of new 6 pipe. The town has installed the new pipeline through the Wetlands Area located just north of the S curves. Karmen King viewed the site last week and approved the Wetlands work to date. BWR is gong to seed and replant willows next week, which Mrs. King felt was the perfect time to follow through with the seeding and willows with rains the town has been experiencing. To date the town has spent $183,390.00 on the project. With two crews installing pipe they should finish by the contract date of Oct. 31.
Regarding the proposed Water Project/STAG Funding, the town has through 2014 to try and utilize the STAG funding ($964,300) for the proposed water distribution project. The town can use whatever portion of this grant, the town just needs to come up with a 45% match. The town is on schedule with the STAG administrators by submitting a current basic Preliminary Engineering Report, which was submitted last fall to show our intentions and use of the funds. Funding is extremely tight now in all funding agencies. The town needs to conduct a Median Household Income survey to qualify for any further grant funding. The Water & Power Authority created a Median Household Income Survey by estimating income in the state. Unfortunately Rico was levied with a Median Household Income of $48,750 with a 63.46% margin of error. This seems like a very large margin of error. In order to qualify for grants the town needs to reduce the estimated income to 61 percent or less margin of error. Mr. England plans to pursue DOLA for this expense, as he was informed they were tagged with funding this requirement. The town has also met the requirements from the Water & Power Authority (W&P) funding. Mr. England completed and sent a Notice of Intent to pursue funding through them for the proposed project. The town plans on submitting this request by the June 1, 2013 deadline for the principal forgiveness program.
The town staff and VCUP board members continue to move forward with requests to Atlantic Richfield for needed funding on the VCUP.
Any 2013 Budget requests need to be submitted in the near future. The 2013 Budget will be presented at the Oct. 17 regular town board meeting for review and public comment.
