Water, sewer projects move forward

The Woodside Park Water Board is celebrating this holiday season as their project to upgrade the water system for the neighborhood in the Cherry Creek area outside Thompson Falls is moving forward.

Woodside Park on November 1 received a signed contract from the state releasing $1.258 million in funding that was awarded through a state competitive ARPA grant. The county earlier this year committed $1.350 million in matching ARPA funds to bring the total budget for the project to just over $2.6 million.

The Woodside Park community has 52 possible water hookups in the neighborhood, and the ARPA funding will be used to upgrade the water system. “The project will entail replacing all of the old pipe, approximately 7,500 feet, that was put in in the late 1970s,” said Dan Briggs with the water board. “It’s undersized for the current system.” The project also will include installing meter pits and meters for each property, replacing the water pumps and rebuilding the well house infrastructure.

Briggs said the project is badly needed. He said one of the letters from the state recognized how the system needed upgrades before they had a catastrophic failure. The system already has had some failures, Briggs noted, with old pipe failing in various places. “We’re very blessed that the commissioners all recognized the need. Without their support, we would have never qualified for the competitive grant.”

The Woodside Park project was fully funded by the state and the county, so the water district will get to complete its entire project. “Great West Engineering put together a plan that fully rebuilds our entire system,” Briggs said. The Woodside Park Water District has a five-member board of directors.

“They would never be able to accomplish a major project like this without the available funding,” Commissioner Tony Cox said. “Homeowners in Woodside Park should be thankful for their board, who has been on top of things and making sure they were in line for funding.”

Briggs said the next step for the Woodside Park project is for Great West to put together a contract for design, which the state Department of Environmental Quality will need to approve before the project can go to bid. Briggs said the district is hoping to start the bidding process in spring 2023 and hope to be done with construction by the end of next year. Briggs said all the work he and the board have put into the project has been worth it. “We had good people. Great West has done an outstanding job,” said Briggs, who has been involved with the water board since its inception in 1994. He noted that because the package is fully funded, unless there are inflationary pressures or other issues in the design and construction process, the upgrades should not impact the water rates of property owners.

The county provided was awarded nearly $3.4 million in ARPA funding for water and sewer projects. Along with Woodside Park's project, the community of Trout Creek was awarded funding for water system improvements. The Trout Creek upgrades wil include water line replacement, installing meters, upgrades to the water tank, a generator and mapping.

The Old Jail Museum in Thompson Falls received $29,920 for renovations and The Paradise Center received $68,765 for upgrades to the building's HVAC system.

Other organizations that have applied for a portion of the county's funding include septic upgrades and water line repairs for the Trout Creek School District, upgrades to the water systems in both Heron and Noxon, as well as pump house renovations for the Northshore neighborhood east of Thompson Falls. Additionally, funding has been requested for upgrades to the communications system for the Western Sanders County TV district to enhance the emergency alert system and increase broadcast integrity.