A new water tower for Centertown is getting closer to being put into service.
Adam Brown, of the Centertown Board of Trustees, said the 60,000-gallon tank should be in operation by the first weekend of December.
“We’d hoped to have the tower operational around Nov. 20, but we’ve had delays due to the cold weather,” Brown said. “There has to be curing time for the paint inside of the tank, and it has to be over 35 degrees.”
Brown said the tank height is 131 feet and will hold 10,000 more gallons than the old tower. Water pressure will probably double at most houses in the town.
Along with the new water tower, the $1.62 million project for upgrades to Centertown’s water distribution and storage system includes construction of approximately 1,080 feet of water mains and upgrades to the existing well house.
Project funding consists of a $733,000 grant from the state’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, and a $245,000 revolving fund loan and a $625,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Department of Economic Development. The remaining $17,546 is coming from local sources. Funding provided by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources is estimated to save ratepayers $733,000 in principal and approximately $50,000 in interest costs during the loan’s 20-year term.
Centertown voters also passed a $1.5 million revenue bond issue for water service improvements in November 2018.
“We went to bid last year before prices went up and that turned out to be the right time to do so,” Brown said. “Our engineering firm we hired, Bartlett and West, has said we’re under $100,000 in engineering costs and $100,000 under budget for work on the project.”
Meanwhile, Brown said, it will still be a while before they can address a wastewater system for the town.
“We’re still looking at probably three years before we can really get into the planning,” Brown said. “We’re looking at an $8 million to $9 million project to either put something in the village or get a system to pump it to Jefferson City.
“We have 300 people in the community using septic tanks now, so we have to find a way to take care of this,” Brown added. We’ve applied for funds from the American Relief Plan (the federal COVID-relief plan) to help us get a wastewater system. Without grants and other funds, we just can’t do it.”