Riverwood street, sewer and water project on tap

After an eight-year delay, a plan to bring city sewer and water to Riverwood Estates will start soon. About 25 residents of the subdivision met with city leaders and engineers from Robert, Peccia and Associates recently to hash out details of the estimated $1.16 million project.

The city will pay for about $776,000 of the cost of the project, while the residents — 28 lots right now — will pay for the rest through a special improvement district.

The city’s portion will come from its capital budget in the sewer, water and street funds.

That works out to about $12,000 per lot, which residents can pay up front or through a payment plan over 20 years. The payments are added to the property taxes and would amount to about $60 a month annually, with interest.

Ryan Mitchell of PCA laid out the groundwork for the project, noting the hope is to make it a gravity feed system for the sewer, though some areas, particularly on the east end of the subdivision, might have to utlize pumps from their home to the main sewer line.

The project was initially proposed years ago and had a significantly higher price tag per home, as the entire cost of the project was going to be put on the homeowners at a rate of about $30,000 to $40,000 per home.

But then the Great Recession hit and the project was put on hold.

Homeowners were pleased the city was helping with the project cost now.

Riverwood is an older subdivision, built on large county lots. As Columbia Falls grew, it was annexed into the city. The subdivision has a community well, but each home has private septic tanks. The old tanks will be crushed and filled with gravel.

City manager Susan Nicosia said the project, in the long term, will be good for the local aquifer, as the septic tanks are bound to fail eventually.

Residents weren’t worried about the cost of the project as much as they were about monthly cost of city sewer and water. Right now, they pay about $25 a month for water.

Their water and sewer bills will go up. But Nicosia explained that the summer sewer bills are based on the winter average sewer use for a home. That makes summer watering of lawns more economical. City residents who do a lot of watering have water bills in the summer that range from $110 to $200 a month during the peak months and only if it’s very dry. A typical water bill is usually about $50 to $65 a month for a family of four.

One way to possibly reduce watering cost is to continue using the subdivision’s well only for irrigation, but that might be cost-prohibitive, residents noted, because of the additional plumbing costs.

The project will also rebuild Riverwood Drive and connect it to Driftwater Way. Mitchell said he’d like to see the project go out to bid later this winter, with a bid award by April. Construction would start in May and should be completed by August.