Hailey citizens shake money loose from feds
$750,000 coming to improve water system
By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer
The citizens of Hailey will see $750,000 of their federal taxes come back
to them to improve their water system.
Hailey’s
water and waste-water supervisor Ray Hyde works a sluice gate. He wants to see a federal
grant used for water system improvements.
The money was included as an item in the federal 2001
Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, signed into law on Oct. 27.
The city’s water and waste water supervisor, Ray Hyde, said Friday
that he would like to see the money used to put water meters on every Hailey user, but
added that the city council will decide how to use the money.
Hyde and city engineer Tom Hellen said that metering Hailey’s water
use is the first step in conserving water. At present no residences and only approximately
50 businesses are metered.
Right now, they said, the city has no way of knowing how much water is
being used by its residents, and so does not know what future demands on the water system
will be.
Hyde said the city knows how much water it pumps for use, but at present
he has no way of knowing how much of it is used and how much of it simply flows back into
the river.
Hyde said it would take all of the $750,000 plus another $100,000 to meter
all of Hailey.
The grant that made this money possible was initiated by Jim Keller of
Keller and Associates, an engineering firm retained by the city.
Hyde said Keller alerted him to the possibility of money if a grant were
written, so Hyde, Keller, Hellen and city clerk Heather Dawson started the grant process
in December. The team put about three months into the writing.
The original request was for $1,270,000.
Hyde said that before the city council puts the money on its agenda, an
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) representative needs to inspect the city’s
water and water-treatment facilities. A date for that inspection has not been set.
