Nate Heffron, city manager, city of Negaunee

Engineering efforts are underway for Negaunee’s next phase in utility construction upgrades. Specifically, on the list are upgrades to water and sewer infrastructure.

Engineers working for the city have been working to design and put together a funding application for submission to the United States Department of Agriculture for a multi-year, phased-in project that will address aging infrastructure well past its lifespan.

The current proposed plan includes the replacement of 25,000 feet of water mains, 14,000 feet of sewer mains, the paving of 5.21 miles of surface pavement on approximately 31 streets , replacement of 31,000 feet of sidewalks, and installation of 2000 feet of new storm drains.

In preparation for the project, the city conducted surveys of water and sewer mains that determine what needed to be replaced due to the age and inefficiency of the infrastructure.

Replacing infrastructure in a strategic, phased-in way is a key part of Negaunee’s “Moving Forward” initiative, which was launched by the city two years ago.

We were looking for both water leaks and water-infiltration in those systems.

Generally speaking, for every gallon of water sold, it should yield one gallon of sewer produced. city records indicate this is not the case because of old and worn out lines.

For example, the city purchased 107,040,000 gallons of water in 2019, but only sold 71,404,000 gallons-meaning that there’s a loss of 36 million gallons due to leaking mains with only a 67 percent efficiency rating. This equates to approximately $88,637 more spent on purchasing this water per year.

As for sewer, the city sent 205,598,000 gallons to the processing plant in 2019. However, the city only billed residents for 68 million gallons, which means the city is paying to process 137,598,000 gallons more due to water seeping into our sewer mains from the surface and ground water. This has cost the city more than $50,000 more per year and is only 33 percent efficient.

This does not reflect how the sewage treatment plant is processing our waste; it reflects how old and ineffective our sewer mains are. Some are 100 years old, well past their life expectancy.

The silver lining that comes out of a project of this magnitude is the fact the many streets and sidewalks will be repaired in the process. Based on the city current projections, at least 30-different streets will be affected by this project and we feel confident that the streets targeted for water and sewer infrastructure repair and replacement will also get some long-overdue surface attention as well.

Many of the streets that are being paved under this project fall in line with our “dig once” policy, where the city attempts to dig one-time, this is accomplished by combining several projects. We want to be efficient and save as many tax payer dollars as we can.

In addition, a street mileage renewal will appear on this years’ ballot. City records indicate that since 2017, 2.62 miles of streets have been repaired from the last millage. In addition, the city was able to match millage funds to sources, with approximately $1 million dollars in savings to tax payers.

Without these millage funds, we would be at a loss, street repairs and repaving projects would come to a virtual stop! We would have no choice, there would be no funding, no way to do what is need.

I wish we could make repairs to more streets more quickly; this project will fix many, but not all of them. I hope the people of Negaunee like the progress the city has been making. I have faith we will be paving more streets and continuing to “move forward” to improve our city.

Editor’s note: Nate Heffron is city manager of the city of Negaunee.