NATALIE ANDREWS - Daily Herald | Posted: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 11:00 pm
There's high-speed Internet or dial-up. Cable or satellite for a viewing a favorite television show. Options are everywhere, and Salem residents are seeing options when it comes to their water source.
Purple stakes have popped up this month in yards across the city, signifying where the valve hook-ups will be for a new pressurized irrigation system.
Construction will start next summer, and city recorder Jeff Nielson said residents will have access to the water in spring 2008.
Residents who choose to connect to the new system will pay $450 for the initial connection fee, between $250 and $300 to connect their sprinklers to the valve that the city places on their property and an average of $25 per month to use it.
In the long run, residents will save on their culinary water bills, Nielson said. That's because once all the connection fees are paid, $25 will buy all the irrigation water a resident wants, which is less than the culinary water fee.
Residents are excited for the secondary water source -- despite the fact that the initial cost to hook up will be several hundred dollars.
"It will cost a little money, but I think they'll pro-rate it," resident Doris Greenwood said. "We think it's a good idea."
According to the city's pressurized irrigation information sheet, the $450 fee can be paid over a period of one or two years.
Todd Powell, president of the Sprinkler Repair Company in Spanish Fork, said it gets tricky if residents want to be able to keep both the culinary and pressurized irrigation connections for the lawn. For that, it can cost between $800-$1,000 because property owners would have to install a device to ensure irrigation water didn't back flow and contaminate the culinary water.
"There's a lot of mitigating factors that can make it more expensive," he said.
The total project will cost $11,675,000. The city is paying for part of it with a $5 million grant from the Central Utah Project, which does not have to be repaid. The other $6 million is a 30-year loan from the Board of Water Resources, and the remaining $675,000 is Salem's match to that loan.
City officials hope residents see the hike in water rates as an addition to infrastructure. Nielson said that growth is inevitable, and the city wants to be ready. Newer developments already have pipes for the pressurized irrigation system, just waiting for 2008.
Although the pressurized irrigation system will mean more water available for residents, it won't mean the city will lift the moratorium on building, which is in place because of power restrictions.
Resident Ilene Beal said she's excited to save money, but she said she'll miss the rural feel the ditches give Salem.
"I have small children, so it's probably a good idea to get the ditches covered up," she said. "Change happens, and as the city gets bigger, you have to utilize."
Sunrise Engineering will have finished planting the stakes in the yards by Oct. 27. If the location of the stake will not work, residents should call 423-7881 and leave their name, number and address before Nov. 10.
Natalie Andrews is available at 344-2561 or nandrews@heraldextra.com.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D3.