Street, Utility Projects Proposed for the Future

The attached map below represents a proposed street/utility project that will begin with engineering in 2021, with the hopes of construction to take place from 2022 through 2024.

This will be a multi-year, phased-in project. The streets chosen for this project are based on surveys of both water and sewer mains that determine what needed to be replaced due to the age and inefficiency of the infrastructure.

Different funds will be used to assist in completing this project, including a USDA Rural Development grant. Additional streets may be added based on available funding. Streets and sidewalks will be directly impacted, meaning they will be replaced.

City staff is proposing resurfacing 5.21 miles of streets and replacing up to 35,000 feet of sidewalk under this project.

“Much of the project will depend upon funding,” said City Manager Nate Heffron. “We are hoping to receive a 45 percent grant from the USDA, but we are also hopeful the Street Maintenance Millage will be renewed. Without it, some streets may be cut from the project.”

According to the engineers working on this project, the total costs of the streets portion is around $680.000. The Street Maintenance Millage renewal is estimated to be in $1.6 million of revenue if passed.

“We won’t be using all  of the renewel money on this project.,” Heffron said. “We definitely want to be able to repair other streets in the community during this eight-year stint.”

City records indicate that since 2017, 2.62 miles of streets were resurfaced.

For the past two years, the City of Negaunee has been implementing its “Moving Forward” initiative.

Under this program, the City has been working hard to improve much of its infrastructure.

“We were looking for both water leaks and water-infiltration,” Heffron said.

In general, for every gallon of water sold, it should yield one gallon of sewer produced. Records indicate this is not the case because of old and worn out lines.

For example, the City purchased 107,040,000 gallons of water in 2019, but only sold 71,404,000 gallons – meaning that there’s a loss of 36 million gallons due to leaking mains with only a 67 percent efficiency rating.

This equates to approximately $88,637 more spent on purchasing water per year.

As for sewer, the city sent 205,598,000 gallons to the processing plant in 2019. However, the city only billed residents for 68 million gallons, which means the City is paying to process 137,598,000 gallons more due to water seeping into our sewer mains from the surface and ground water.

This costs the City more than $50,000 more per year and is only 33 percent efficient.

This does not reflect how the sewage treatment plant is processing our waste; it reflects how old and ineffective our sewer mains are.

Some are 100 years old, well past their life expectancy.

Financing this project through the USDA for 40 years (the average loan) will save $3,545,480 in water and more than $2 million in sewer costs.