Council gets list of proposed projects
by Emmitt B. Feldner of the Review staff
PLYMOUTH — The leaky Western Avenue sewer is just one project the city will be considering for work this year.
Public Works Director William Immich, Plymouth Utilities Manager John MacKinnon and engineer Don Albright of Kapur and Associates presented a list of proposed water main and sewer projects to the City Council’s Committee of the Whole Tuesday.
The total cost for the dozen projects would be more than $3.7 million. But MacKinnon explained that Plymouth Utilities could cover $827,300 of that — including replacing the failing sanitary sewer on Western Avenue from Main Street to Sunset Drive — out of the utilities’ reserves.
The rest of the projects fall under tax incremental district 4 and 5, so they could be bonded for and repaid out of TIF revenues.
Phil Cosson of Ehlers and Associates, the city’s financial consultants, will be analyzing the proposed TIF projects and will present financing alternatives to the council later this month.
MacKinnon noted that three of the projects on the list have already been completed and the TIF bonding would reimburse Plymouth Utilities for the expense.
Another project would be to replace and upgrade sanitary sewers between South Street and Appleton Street. The work would be done in conjunction with the project to install a new 14-degree curve connection between the north-south rail line and the Plymouth-Kohler east-west rail line that is to be restored this year.
“It would be prudent for us to go out there ahead of that (rail) project and get the sanitary sewer installed,” MacKinnon explained.
