Big year for city capital projects

Replacing brass water meters with an advanced drive-by system that eliminates monthly manual meter readings and reconstructing an aging water line from Well 1 to the high school water tank are among the City of Shelton's biggest capital projects this year.

Public Works Director Jay Harris and Capital Projects Manager Aaron Nix gave the members of the Shelton City Council updates on those projects Jan. 9 at a work session in the Shelton Civic Center.

City officials, including Mayor Eric Onisko, agreed that water, sewer and road projects are the key to bringing people to Shelton.

"I just don't want to see every time we're ready to grow, we get people interested in Shelton, we're told by DOH (the state Department of Health) or Ecology, 'Yes, I'm sorry, you can't do that, your sewer treatment plant isn't good enough, oh, your water isn't good enough, your storage isn't enough,' " Onisko said. "I want to make sure that when they're ready to come, we're ready."

These capital projects are "a priority of staff, we talk about this every 10 minutes, it seems like, within the hallways and offices ... This is kind of a lynch pin, the key, the foundation of development," said City Manager Mark Ziegler.

"This is woes of a small city, growing into a midsized city, the city is transitioning ... it's important to keep up with these capital projects," said Harris.

One of the city's most ambitious projects is replacing brass water meters with a drive-by system that eliminates monthly manual meter reads and provides timely water use data regardless of weather conditions or power outages. City crews so far have installed 441 meters; in the next year so, it will be 3,839.

These days, city maintenance employees read the meters.

"So instead of individually going by and reading all they need to do is drive by," Nix said. "The computer picks it up, it's sending out a reading, it's a lot easier than going house to house."

"The problem with the older meters is they get less accurate as they get older as the batteries die off," he said. "The other benefit is the new meters themselves, typically they're 20-year batteries so you'll be saving a lot of money."

If a customer believes their water bill is unusually high, they will be able to go online and check out their use, Harris said.

He added, "The meters are going to be more accurate and read better ... the meters are now reading a little lower, but we're going to be getting to the customers and talking to them about the leaks and that sort of thing, so in the end consumption will probably drop a little bit because of the better leak action and all that."

For the project, the city received a $800,000 grant from the American Rescue Plan Act. The city is also using money from the water and sewer rate money to pay for it.

The city recently hired Rognlin's Construction to reconstruct an aging water line from Well 1, across the street from Olympic College Shelton, to the high school water tank on the hill above the Shelton Timberland Library that serves the city's downtown pressure zone. Work is expected to begin within the next month.

The city received a $2,050,000 grant from the state Department of Commerce for the project.

The project has been on the city's comprehensive plan since 2010, said Harris, who added, "This is like a once-in-a-lifetime sort of project."

"The benefit is we get a pressurized main going from Well 1 all the way down to the high school reservoir, whereas now it's a gravity line and it's been all gravity line," Harris said. "So our whole system will be pressurized then, which is some really good news."

The high school tank was built in the 1960s.

"It inspected fine this year, minimal rust ... but it is showing its age," Harris said. "Eventually, these small reservoirs probably ought to be taken offline because the painting cost of that is probably a quarter of the cost of a new reservoir, especially the interior coatings, so you've got to start looking at lifecycle analysis and is it worth it recoating this thing, because they're aging quicker and quicker and quicker because they're getting rustier and rustier."

The city is also working on helping the students at Evergreen Elementary School and Shelton High School with three road projects through a federal program called Safe Routes to School.

In July 2021, the city was awarded $770,103 in competition for state funding. The grant money is for design and construction, and the city was required to make a 13.5% match in money.

The city will use the grants for crosswalks and other improvements on Shelton Springs Road at Shelton High School and the Huff'n'Puff Trail; Seventh and Franklin streets, across the street from Evergreen Elementary School; and two blocks away near Safeway, at Ninth and Franklin streets.

The city has spent about $120,000 to $130,000 on design, and today puts the construction contract out to bid, Harris said.

The city is also considering two options for the intersection of Wallace Kneeland Boulevard and Shelton Springs Road: a roundabout, which would cost $4 million or more, or by improving the signs and signals and adding turn lanes.

"We know the signal is a quarter of the cost," Harris said. Pedestrians are safer with roundabouts, he said.

The city is also working to increase storage with the Water Reclamation Plant storage tank project, which will lead to a 500,000-gallon tank at the south end of Sanderson Field; improvements to the Angleside pressure zone that will include a new reservoir near Lake Boulevard; and safety improvements to the Shelton Police Department parking lot.