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Bonner Springs City Council members in their workshop session Monday gave city staff the go-ahead on planning and seeking bids on a much scaled-down version of a major sewer-system improvement plan.

The really difficult decision-making will come later, when the council must figure out how pay for the $2.5 million project.

Of eight proposed courses of action for sewer system improvements presented to Council members and discussed at Thursday and Monday workshop sessions, the governing body elected on Monday to go with one that includes a new Front Street force main line, an infiltration and inflow study and the purchase of property that could house a Wolf Creek Pump Station.

At the Monday meeting, Marcia Ashford, director of economic development, presented the council a compromise between the two still on the shelf after Thursday’s meeting. The first option cost an estimated $3.58 million, and included construction of part of the new force main line, an upgrade to the lift station near Second Street and South Neconi Avenue, the infiltration and inflow study and the purchase of the pump station property. The other, estimated at $1.73 million, had the same components minus the lift station upgrade, and included construction of the entire force main.

The infiltration and inflow study is to measure stormwater entering the system through cracks, deformities and open joints. A force main line is a pressurized pipe that runs off a lift, or pump, station to pump wastewater to the treatment plant, instead of using gravity.

The course of action chosen by the council could be funded in one of at least three ways, Ashford said, at its currently estimated cost: through a 3-mill levy increase, a 21 percent increase in utility (sewer and water) rate fees phased in over three years, or a combination of the two, with a 2-mill levy increase and a 9 percent increase in utility rates. A mill is $1 for every $1,000 in assessed property value.

City staff calculated that for a $100,000 home each mill increase would mean an extra $11.50 in property taxes each year. Every 1 percent increase in utility rates would mean an extra 32 cents per month for a family of four using 6,000 gallons of water per month.

The city had originally hoped for a much larger sewer expansion project to facilitate growth in the north and west.Those plans came to an estimated $8.2.

The city had contracted in 2005 with Larkin Group Inc. to complete a study of the wastewater treatment and collection master plan for Wolf Creek, Mission Creek and Spring Creek watersheds. At the time, Leavenworth County and Basehor had expressed interest in being part of a regional sewer system. Neither entity is interested in such an agreement now.

Because of the cost, council members decided to forgo for now the building of the Wolf Creek Pump Station and the Wolf Creek Interceptor, at an estimated $2.1 million and $4.1 million price apiece.

Most of the design work for the Wolf Creek interceptor, the Wolf Creek pump station, as well as for a Grandview/Pratt interceptor, and the Front Street force main are mostly complete, at a cost of $375,144. That money can be considered an investment, Ashford said, for when the city is ready to build all those projects, which need an estimated $112,126 more in design work.

The estimated $1,187,391 Front Street improvement project will include curb and gutter sidewalk, ADA-compliant ramps, driveway pavement markings, a guard rail, landscaping and an improvement to the intersection at Warner and Front streets, new lighting, a brick-lined sidewalk and decorative street signs.

The city’s cost for the project, outside the force main line, would be 25 percent of the project, or about $296,848, with the rest of the money coming from a state-administered federal grant.

If the sewer improvement plan is to be paid for by a rate increase, the council will need to decide so, after a public hearing, by Jan. 1, 2009, City Manager John Helin said. Ashford said construction probably won’t begin until spring 2009.

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