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City takes first steps toward wastewater upgrade project

An upgrade to Havre's wastewater system may not break ground until 2014, but the beginnings of the project are happening now.

At Monday night's meeting, Havre City Council members received an update on the project from Michele Turville, the Bear Paw Development Corp. representative who is helping the city with the project.

After spending the summer securing $40,000 in grants to fund an engineering report, including the Treasure State Endowment Program grant that requires the city to directly match $15,000, the city is looking for the right engineering firm.

A notice is running in today's issue of the Havre Daily News and will be again in a few weeks. The notice will also be sent out to engineering firms across the state that Bear Paw Development interacts with.

These firms will have until Sept. 20 to submit proposals for putting together a report about what the wastewater system needs.

The city will evaluate the proposals and select a few of the firms to interview.

The final firm will begin examination of the wastewater system shortly thereafter. The study will also include a look at what sort of Department of Environmental Quality standards need to be considered now and how those standards may change between now and construction time.

A cycle of developing a draft and then having a public hearing to discuss the findings will repeat twice before the final report needs to be completed by March 15.

Turville said she would then use the final report to write up applications for the grants necessary to make the changes suggested.

Then, according to Turville, the project will remain on hold until state approval.

"Because TSEP is connected to the Legislature we won't even know if we get funded until probably May 2013, " Turville said.

Pending that approval, plans would be drawn up and preparations made for the start of construction, possibly sometime in 2014.

 

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