Belle aldermen on Nov. 10 approved a total of $49,050 for multiple water projects.

Public Works Director Tony Baretich told the board that the lift stations on Rohrer Drive needed to be rehabilitated since it is not part of the sewer project that the city has been working towards.

Baretich told the board that they discussed sending the project out to bid in October, but decided to keep the business local. However, they did not approve purchasing the parts.

“We are looking at $17,500 for parts, including three extra meters,” Baretich said, adding that an additional $15,000 would be needed to complete both lift station repairs. “I ballparked it at $36,000 and we are at $31,500. I thought it was a go, so half the parts are sitting in the shop already.”

Alderman Jeanette Struemph made a motion to approve the purchases to be paid from the sewer rollover account from last year. The cost includes parts, materials and labor.

“I also need parts for the irrigation field,” Baretich said. “It has needed to be fixed for some time. There are five valves that run the irrigation field that need to be replaced. They received two bids on the valves, one for $12,500 without a warranty. The second was $17,550 for warrantied parts and city employees would take care of the labor. The board approved the purchase that will also come from the sewer rollover fund.

“We would like to proceed with that as winter comes as we shut down the fields and allow them to dry out,” Baretich said. “The valves open but don’t shut properly.”

Daryl Jenkins, public works employee, said the current field system was installed in 1987 and has had next to no maintenance. Struemph asked how much money would be left in the fund after the two projects.

“I figured we would be around $55,00-$56,000, but we won’t have to touch it for 20 years after we do these projects,” Baretich said. “These are long-term fixes.”

Baretich also asked the board’s permission to advertise for meter installation bids. The public works department has already consulted with Terris Cates from Integrity Engineering about the bid specs and is ready to advertise them.

The city requires owners of newly built homes to purchase their own meters and the city will supervise the installation of said meters. The owner purchases the meter from the city, which tries to keep the same meter in stock for everyone so everything runs off of the same system.

However, the old system is failing and the city public works department is running out of meters.

“We are estimating the amount we are charging versus water use,” Baretich told the board, while discussing what type of meter they should request bids on.

“There is about a 2.4 million gallon loss between what Frankie bills and what is being used,” Baretich said. “We can estimate what was going on, such as house fires, but it is nowhere near what we can account for.”

Baretich estimated that the city would not be able to overhaul the meter system for less than a quarter of a million dollars and applying for grants for the project would set it back at least a year.

“There are 10 residences, churches, the city, firehouse and park are not metered,” Baretich added. “The company we have do this will only reinstall meters we make money from. We can do the others on our own.”

Alderman Sundi Jo Graham asked if the city doesn’t charge the residences that don’t have meters.

“We don’t charge churches and the residences we guess,” Baretich said. “We are at a point somethings gonna break. It’s taking longer and longer each month to read the meters. Our ability to recoup money is there.”

Baretich said he hoped by the Dec. 8 meeting that he would have a more accurate bill for the board to see and vote on. He said there are water engineering survey grants available for the future, but the city will most likely be stuck with the bill from the water meter project.

“I think we are losing a substantial amount of money and DNR says we are only supposed to lose about 10 percent,” Baretich said.

Gieck made a motion to place the bid in the newspaper for two weeks and bring responses to the Dec. 8 meeting.

The board also amended and approved a resolution to all Mayor Steve Vogt to execute project documents on behalf of the city with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The Drinking Water Engineering Grant is a $15,000 grant that requires the city to match the same amount of funds to pay for a project.

The board voted all in favor to allow Vogt to sign and submit the application for the grant.

An update was also provided by Alderman Courtney Abel about acquiring maps of water and sewer lines. Abel believes the maps may be free through Missouri Rural Water and is waiting for a call back from that agency.