The city of Arnold will pay up to $40,000 more in engineering fees related to improvements to the watershed in the Little Muddy Creek area.
The city already had paid Hurst-Rosche Engineers of Arnold $100,000 to complete designs for improvements in the area, but city officials learned more improvements were needed and requested further design work to address those, Public Works Director Judy Wagner said.
She said in all the improvements are expected to cost about $2.6 million to complete.
“We have seven locations, but we didn’t know the extent of how much was involved at each location,” Wagner said. “There is a domino effect when you tear up one pipe and replace one inlet. It is downhill water.”
The Little Muddy Creek area is north of Hwy. 141 and west of I-55.
Wagner said improvements will be completed along Walnut, Arlene, Roy, Ray, Polly, Jacqueline, Redwood and Sonny drives, as well as to a ditch between the Fox Chase Apartments and Redwood Drive.
“Some of the areas have pipes that are old and decaying,” Wagner said. “They are collapsing and causing sink holes. Some of the pipes are not large enough for the stormwater that is coming now. The ditch is overwhelmed and eroding the side of the ditch. That is bringing down fences.”
Wagner said the additional engineering work is expected to be completed by February, and the city plans to seek bids for the construction in the spring 2023.
Wagner said the city sought additional engineering services to expand the project partly because officials have been told some of the work is eligible to be refunded through Jefferson County’s 1/2-cent sales tax for road and bridge projects.
The tax was first approved in April 1986 and was extended in November 1998 and August 2014. The county collects the money and reimburses the 15 municipalities for projects each month, and the money rolls over each year.
The county keeps the bulk of the money from the tax to use throughout unincorporated Jefferson County and then distributes the rest to cities based on population and road miles in those cities.
Arnold city officials already had agreed to use about $890,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds it has received to help pay for the improvements, Wagner said.
“Once I found out funding was available through the Jefferson County capital improvement tax, I was like let’s get this completely finished,” she said. “That way when we resurface, we don’t have to tear it up.”
She said the city still will need to use funds it received from ARPA on the project because not all of the improvements are on city-owned roads.
“We have some inlets that are in backyards that collect water and bring it into the city street system,” Wagner said. “Anything that is not on the city street system is not eligible to be reimbursed. I don’t know the dollar amount that I will not ask for reimbursement through Jefferson County.”
City Council members voted 7-0 on Dec. 1 to pay the additional $40,000 for engineering services. Ward 1 Councilman EJ Fleischmann was not at the meeting.