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Sewer work gets a lift

The Shelton City Council on Tuesday made a preliminary move to buy land on Olympic Highway North for a new sewer lift station.

The council voted unanimously to purchase parcels by two landowners at Olympic Highway North and A Street for $405,000. The council can make the move official at its Jan. 17 meeting.

The North Division Sewer Lift Station would redirect most of the wastewater flow in the northwest sections of the city and pump it to the membrane treatment plant near Sanderson Field.

According to the report from the city's Public Works Department, the property purchase demonstrates the city's commitment to the proposed comprehensive plan capital improvement projects "and can be helpful for the city to secure future grant funds to construct the $9.2-million dollar lift station and force main project."

Completing the North Division Sewer Lift Station and increasing the size of the treatment storage at the membrane plant are primary goals in the partnership between the city and the Squaxin Island Tribe, the city report states. The projects would "allow much more reclaimed water to be reused, or infiltrate into the Goldsborough Creek aquifer, and reduce the amount of wastewater discharging from the main treatment plant into Oakland Bay," it said.

Two of the eight parcels house a cell tower. The current owners in 2020 signed a 99-year tower and access area lease with the tower owners, Landmark Infrastructure Holding Co. If the city completes the purchase, it will continue the lease agreement. The current owners were already paid for the 99-year lease, and the city will receive no payments.

In July, the council approved the allocation of $410,000 of wastewater funds for the purchase. According to the city report, several lots purchased north of the lift station would be used as staging areas during construction, and probably would be declared surplus after the project is completed and be declared surplus. Selling the surplussed lots might reduce the overall purchase of the property, the city states.

Author Bio

Gordon Weeks, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald

 

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