New water main being installed on Erie

by Angie Asam, Staff Writer

Cordes Excavating of Hillman began tearing up parts of Erie Street Monday as they work to install a new water main from Fourth to Second Streets. The project is being done as a part of the Vibrant Small Cities Initiative grant (VSCI) through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) Rogers City received over a year ago. The work is being done by a method of horizontal drilling, the area under the roadway is being drilled out through just a few small parts of asphalt being removed. The new water main will be pushed through the hole and the old water main will remain under the roadway abandoned.

Once the new water main is all in place, new connections will be made where needed. According to city manager Mark Slown, the project will be completed sometime next week. The construction has caused some minor traffic redirection as Fourth Street is closed from Center Street to Michigan Avenue as crews work. After the new main and new connections are made, the road will be patched; and except for a few new valve stations and new curb stop shutoffs, it will look like nothing happened.

The new main is replacing a water main that was installed sometime in the 1940?s and was in need of repair as it was deteriorating rapidly. Slown showed an example of the old water main and new main at the city council meeting Tuesday evening to illustrate the change.

Cordes is working under the supervision of engineers from C2AE as well as city staff on the project. Water supervisor Chuck Kieliszewski and city engineer Toby Kuznicki have been on the construction site answering concerns and questions and making sure all the new connections will be made properly.

The new connections may result in some more digging up of the street and possibly some sidewalks, according to Slown, but will all be patched when completed and paid for from the grant. Slown didn?t believe any sidewalks would need to be torn up but was not 100 percent positive. He indicated that if they did need to be, it would be small portions and be completed as a part of the project at no cost to the property owners. This portion of the VSCI grant accounts for $90,000 and adds to the already completed $50,000 project at the Rogers City Area Senior and Community Center. Following this project will be a new streetlight project that hopefully will be completed this fall as well as a wayfinding signage project and a downtown economic study.

?I am just starting to get in the proposals for the economic study. That is something we are going to jump into and will keep us really bus

y. We will hire a company and then there will be several public sessions to get information before a final report is done. The idea behind the study is that not only will we get information out of it but it is a public participation process and education of our business owners on possible ways they can improve their business success,? said Slown. Some of the companies we are looking at have had success working in downtowns including one company that helped Cheboygan. ?It?s a building process, brick by brick, step by step, to make downtowns better. It is sort of the Rome wasn?t built in a day theory,? said Slown.

It is important for residents to note that this water main project is not a part of the proposed water and sewer upgrades that have not been finally approved. Those projects are being done as a separate loan through the United States Department of Agriculture ? Rural Development. Those projects have not been decided on for final approval by the city council as of yet but will be in the future.