MVWD Approves Two Projects To Improve System

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The Moapa Valley Water District (MVWD) Board of Directors; in a meeting held Thursday, July 8; approved two agenda items that would update and expand segments of the district’s water distribution system.

The first of these items was a proposal to replace a pipeline along Gubler Ave. from Lyman Street to St. Joseph Street in Logandale. Currently the water line through that area is only a 3-inch main. The proposal is to replace that with a 12-inch PVC pipeline.

This is the last of a series of pipeline replacement projects that aim to bring redundancy to neighborhoods on the east side of the Muddy River flood channel.

“We actually started this process three years ago,” said MVWD General Manager Joe Davis in the meeting. “We did Yamashita first which was a similar project to this one. So this one is the last and final step to give us redundancy back and forth across the river so we can supply all of our needs.”

Davis explained that the district has identified a need to do maintenance on the large water storage tank up on the hills east of the Logandale Fairgrounds, called the East Logandale tank. This would require taking that tank offline while the maintenance is being done, he said.

“As it stands right now, we cannot take the East Logandale tank offline at all, because we can’t feed water back and forth. It is the only thing that feeds all the fire protection in the sandhills. So in order to take that tank offline and do the maintenance needed on it, we need to have this project done.”

The board had previously approved both the Yamashita and Gubler projects in earlier votes. But Davis said that staff was bringing it before the board again because cost of materials had gone up significantly since that time.

Davis said that both the Yamashita project and the Gubler project had gone through the design phase at the same time. The two projects are almost the same in scope, he said.

“They are pretty much sister projects,” Davis said. “They are almost identical in length, work, effort, asphalt and everything.”

The district paid less than $180,000 for materials in the Yamashita project. But after recently putting materials for the Gubler project out to bid, the lowest bid came in at $238,395. That bid came from Ferguson Waterworks out of Henderson, Nevada.
“That is a pretty significant increase in price on materials for products that are out there,” Davis said.

“We know that we have already been pre-approved as long as they come in under budget. But this is kind of an outlier. So we felt like we should bring it to the board and have you look it over before moving forward.”

MVWD Board member Lindsey Dalley made a motion to accept the bid from Ferguson Waterworks for the materials. A unanimous vote approved the motion.

In the second item, the board approved the establishment of a formal reimbursement district involving two parcels at the south end of Metcalf Dr. at the intersection of the Willow Ave. alignment.

Davis explained that Logandale resident Cody Hughes had paid to have a water line extension installed to service his property on the east side of Metcalf Dr. in that location. Hughes paid the roughly $16,000 cost to build the line.

In the process of all this, the neighboring parcel on the west side of Metcalf also expressed interest in paying for a portion of that extension so that he could eventually install a meter on that property as well.

In such a situation, according to MVWD policy, a reimbursement district is created. This provides a mechanism for Hughes to be reimbursed for footing the whole bill for the main line, Davis said.
“If the two had come together as partners to begin with, it would have been a no-brainer,” Davis said.

“But since it was happening at a later date, in order to follow the rules, we felt it was best to create this reimbursement area. Even though it will be created and then within a couple of days it will be satisfied and be done. Still we wanted the consistency in there.”

The project was completed by MVWD personnel without any contract work needing to go out to bid, Davis said.

“The entire project cost $16,068,” Davis added. “So Mr. Hughes can recoup $8,034 in the process.”
Davis explained that when the other parcel owner pays the other half of the cost, the reimbursement district would pass through those funds back to Hughes as reimbursed excess funds.

“Thank you for being consistent in the approach to this, and for sticking to policy,” said MVWD Board Chairman Randy Tobler in the meeting.

MVWD Board member Ryan Wheeler made the motion to accept the formation of a reimbursement district in that location. The motion was approved with a unanimous vote.