Troy eyes Iron Creek tank site

By Roger Morris Western News Publisher

The Troy City Council is leaning towards the purchase of private property on Iron Creek Road for location of a new city well and storage tank.

Actually, the city is making plans for using two parcels, one which they own on Lake Hill. But the Iron Creek property would save some costs in running city water mains, said engineer Mike Fraser of Thomas, Dean & Hoskins of Kalispell.

³It will work,² Fraser said of the Iron Creek property. ³It will also work on the city property on Lake Hill.²

A tentative agreement has been reached for the Iron Creek land with owner Cecil McDougall.

The city has needed to identify a physical location for the storage tank for the environmental review of the proposed water improvement system. Fraser said the Lake City location would include additional costs for hanging water mains off the Lake Creek bridge or tunneling the pipe under Lake Creek.

³That would change the environmental review,² Fraser noted.

The engineer expects everything to be in place to let bids on the project in late spring.

³The good news is the guys who did the sewer project are now out of Missoula and looking for work,² Fraser said. ³It seems like everything is coming together although it took a long time to get things going.²

The city began considering the water project while the sewer project was just beginning several years ago. Serious breaks and leaks in city water mains were depleting the budget with the city having to borrow money from the municipal electric company.

More recently, on Dec. 17, a water main ruptured at the intersection of Third Street and Yaak Avenue near the railroad tracks. It left the downtown area without water and the residential and commercial sites between the river and the tracks went dry when city crews had to shut off the city pump. That repair took about 11 hours.

Councilmen expressed concerns with a leak or rupture occurring in the mains beneath the tracks.

The city plans on replacing most water mains and installing meters to every water user.