Sioux City Times

The Storm Lake City Council recently put together its five-year capital improvement plan that will cover 2024-2028.

At the council meeting earlier this month, city staff walked the council members through the details of upcoming projects, after which the council set a public hearing on Monday to get public opinions about all of the CIP projects.

Public Works Director Matt Beckman discussed what’s on tap for his division.

“So EPA came out with rulings that we have to have a lead and copper inventory by 2024,” Beckman said in a video recording of the meeting. “And they still haven't come up with how all that is getting funded. So we're trying to get out ahead of the game here and put a little bit of money aside if they throw it toward the city for that.” 

One of his department’s goals is to set aside $100,000 for replacing the lead and copper lines. 

“And moving on Water line replacement set aside a lot like the sewer pipe set aside,” he continued. “Same same concept is just setting aside money to where we could get to these projects and then start fixing some of these old cast iron lines and aging lines and infrastructure in town. And that's $480,000.”

The specific projects include a Parkview Drive sewer line replacement. This project will cost approximately $200,000. It needs to be done as there are many places along the line where it has started to crack or is collapsing, so the project is for a full replacement, not just a relining. 

The city will continue its sanitary sewer project which started a few years ago. It will spend almost $1 million on a new area of the sewer system. The city also will set aside $180,000 out of the budget to create a fund for sewer replacements in the future when projects like Parkview Drive creep up they are not so impactful. 

The city will also have a variety of projects with its wastewater systems. They plan to do $100,000 of improvements to the 1st street station and a $504,000 replacement of the Ice House station. The Scout Park Lift station will be completely replaced for over $1 million, and many of these lift station projects come from the Iowa DNR requirements increasing to two pumps per station. Other big projects include a new UV sanitization building and getting a new sampler to keep up with demand.