Commissioners consider water request

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert County Board of Commissioners looked at a water line issue, while also receiving bids for a road-resurfacing project during meetings held this week.

Craig Mescher of Fanning & Howey and County Engineer Kyle Wendel met with the commissioners on Thursday to talk about the possibility of having either Van Wert or Delphos provide treated water to Middle Point residents.

Mescher said both Van Wert and Delphos would provide good quality treated water, although it appears that Van Wert officials are not as eager to operate and maintain a system in Middle Point. Lines would have to be run from either city – approximately 6 miles for Van Wert along Lincoln Highway and over 5 miles for Delphos – although Mescher said there appear to be more benefits to running a line from Van Wert, even though it would have to be run farther.

One benefit for the Lincoln Highway line is the fact that water lines would not have to cross railroad tracks, as would be the case if a line were run from Delphos. There also could be other entities that could benefit from a line from Van Wert, including several businesses and Lincolnview Local School District.

Mescher said both entities would provide good quality water, although he noted that Delphos is more interested in selling water than Van Wert, since the Delphos system was set up as a regional water system, however he didn’t think either city would want to maintain the line run from their municipality to Middle Point.

“It’s going to be hard for that to be an option,” Mescher said.

The bottom line, he added, was what would be the most cost-effective option for Middle Point residents, noting that more and more stringent EPA regulations made it extremely difficult and expensive for a small village to maintain its own water system.

Commissioner Clair Dudgeon agreed that the opinion of Middle Point residents would be crucial to who would provide water.

“Middle Point, in a way, is going to help direct us to what is most feasible to them through a rate structure,” Dudgeon noted.

Mescher also said that, no matter what municipality would provide water to the Middle Point, the village would maintain its water tower, which would also maintain good water pressure for the village.

He noted that any agreement to provide water to Middle Point would have to include a contract between the city involved and the county, as well as between Middle Point and the city providing water.

Mescher said the line would likely be buried about four feet down to avoid having the line freeze during winter. He noted that, while elevation would not likely be a problem, there would likely need to be a booster station between the city providing water and Middle Point.

One possible problem for having water provided by Van Wert is related to another infrastructure issue on Tuesday’s meeting agenda of the commissioners. That involves resurfacing Lincoln Highway, from Middle Point-Wetzel Road to Ohio 66 in Delphos.

Wendel said he would prefer not to tear up Lincoln Highway again to put in water lines after it was just resurfaced.

Mescher said that the study he is doing on the Middle Point water situation won’t be done until April or May of this year, with any construction not occurring until next year.

The commissioners also accepted two bids for the Lincoln Highway resurfacing project. The lowest bid came from the Shelly Company of Lima, which bid $997,681.84 to do the project. The other bidder, LICA of Berne, Ind., submitted a bid of $1,021,789.02. Both bids included a construction bond.