Stu Skauge, Ishpeming City Council

ISHPEMING — The city of Ishpeming will seek funding for major repair and replacement of portions of its sanitary sewer system, as long as it does not involve raising rates, city officials said.

During a virtual meeting on Wednesday, the Ishpeming City Council unanimously approved a contract with GEI Consultants not to exceed $15,000, and to waive competitive bidding on the project.

The firm will work with Ishpeming City Manager Craig Cugini to put together and submit a funding application to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The city recently completed the inspection, televising and mapping of its sewer infrastructure, as well as a capital improvement plan to be implemented over the next 10 years.

That project was funded in part by a $1.3 million Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy Stormwater Asset Management grant awarded in 2016. The capital improvement plan developed recently determined that the sewer system would require about $10 million of construction work, including improvements or reconstruction at the Park Street lift station and complete sanitary sewer replacements in other areas of the city.

Councilor Stu Skauge said he was concerned that if USDA funding included a loan, a rate increase might be required.

“I will tell you right now, I will not vote to raise the rates,” Skauge said.

Several councilors agreed, including Pat Scanlon.

“I think we should move forward with this. We’ve got a mess, there’s no sense in letting it get worse if we can help it,” Scanlon said. “The thing to me is that there is not a water increase on the table.”

According to the city website, the minimum utility bill including water, sewer and garbage pickup as of January 2019 was $95.79.

Ishpeming Finance Director Jim Lampman said that approaching the USDA for funding would mean an evaluation of the city’s rate structure.

“They are going to take a look at it and they are going to tell us, here is the threshold you need to be at in order to qualify for funding through USDA Rural Development,” he said. “So, really, until we apply and we start going through that process and study the rate structure now versus what the USDA is requiring, we are not going to know if the rates are sufficient or not.”

Ishpeming Mayor Mike Tonkin acknowledged that there is a lot of information that the city has yet to process.

“This is just a preliminary, to get your feet wet,” Tonkin said. “What’s available? What’s it going to cost? Do we have to raise rates or don’t we? … But we need to start somewhere.”

The council also unanimously approved a $155,804 bid from Core and Main for the purchase and installation of fixed radio-read system infrastructure, the procurement of 250 radio-read water meters; and the handheld radio unit necessary to read the meters.

The project will be funded with the remainder of $10.8 million in USDA Rural Development financing for a project that replaced a substantial portion of the city’s aging water infrastructure, including water mains.

Lisa Bowers can be reached at lbowers@miningjournal.net.