Warsaw hopes to move water intake to more sheltered spot

The City of Warsaw is in the first stages of solving a serious problem with its Mississippi River water intake.

The intake is unusable during and after the river floods and is expensive to clear and repair each time. When the intake is out of service, the city must use temporary pumps along with fossil fuels at added energy expense.

The unusually high flooding in the past couple of years has led to debris, silt and sand piling on and disabling the intake.

The city intends to move the intake to a more sheltered area inside the superstructure of an old coal dock upstream from the intake's current location.

City Engineer Elgin Berry drew plans for the new intake location and believes the move is likely to fix the problem.

Permit applications for intake-related construction have been sent to the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers along with requests that approval comes as soon as possible.

Also, plans have been given to about 12 construction firms, Berry said.

The bid opening is set for 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10, at City Hall, “but we won't be able to award the bid until the permits are approved,” he said.

Berry said construction would be scheduled to be completed in 60 days unless winter weather creates the need for more time.

In the meantime, the water department continues pumping water from the river to the water plant using gas and diesel water pumps. Also, concerns were raised about the pump and water line freezing if construction of the new water intake site stretches too far into the winter months.

“We can't (even) wait 40 days,” Mayor Robert Frank said.

Council members pressured the city's building inspector, Joe Clarke, for some action on dilapidated property abatement.

Clarke said nothing has been done with Main Street buildings because ownership is difficult to determine, neighboring buildings could be at risk during demolition and the city has no funding set aside for the problem.

“There hasn't been a building in this town condemned in 25 years,” Clarke said.

Council member Chris Huston wondered who would assume liability if a dilapidated building injures a passerby. City Attorney Bill Rasmussen said the liability would lie with the property owner.