San Juan’s water, sewer project nears completion

San Juan Bautista’s $10 million infrastructure project is nearly finished, though change orders throughout the project have delayed the construction of a pellet plant designed to make water softeners unnecessary in the city.
“It’s substantially complete,” interim City Manager Roger Grimsley said of the project, funded by an $11.1 million, 35-year bond. “We’re now seeking additional funds to complete the pellet plant.”
The multi-year project replaced underground water and sewer lines throughout the city, added new curbs, gutters and wheelchair ramps to sidewalks, and added a reservoir designed to improve fire protection and water flow.
“We’re ready to commence the construction of the pellet plant, but we want to have plans redesigned to make it more affordable,” Grimsley said. “The original estimate was that it would take more than $1 million to complete it, but we feel we can get it redesigned and get that down substantially.”
After new plans are drawn up, the city plans to seek Community Development Block Grant funding from the state or clean water grants to help finish the job.
“We’ve been trying to trim some things” to keep costs down, Grimsley said. “The original plans called for sophisticated landscaping and irrigation systems. We’re thinking we can afford to delay that and put it into a phase where we can do it at a later date to save additional money in order to get the plant online.”
Once the plant is running, “it will make the water much softer to where it would almost encourage residents to get rid of water softeners,” Grimsley said.
Citing “a number” of change orders to the infrastructure project – most of which occurred before he came on board as interim city manger – “we have to go back and re-address what we can afford,” he said. “I feel confident we can trim the costs substantially where it can get done.”
One unexpected cost was a booster station that had to be installed off Washington Street to help with water flow.
When the city signed its certificate of participation, which outlines the scope of the project, it had to include a 10 percent – or more than $1 million – reserve fund to maintain the solvency of the project. That money, Grimsley noted, cannot be used to fund construction, so the city has to look elsewhere to fund the pellet plant.
The roads over the underground pipe project have been repaved and upgraded and the 1.2 million gallon city reservoir is functioning.
“It gives us additional fire protection with larger water mains coming down from the reservoir as well as more fire hydrants that give better fire protection for the city,” Grimsley said. “That will be reflected in lower insurance premiums for homeowners and businesses.”
Officials expect the process of seeking additional funding could take at least a year.