OCEAN CITY — Resort officials this week approved a request to spend $400,000 to replace aging water mains under four roadways in town before they are repaved.
During Tuesday’s work session, City Manager Doug Miller requested approval to spend $400,000 to replace water mains and water laterals under four streets scheduled for repaving this winter. Each year, the Public Works Department identifies streets scheduled for overlay in an ongoing and cyclical repaving schedule throughout the town and this year, four of the streets on the schedule will need aging water mains and laterals replaced in advance.
“We need authorization to spend $400,000 on water main improvements on four streets we wish to overlay,” said Miller. “Before we overlay those streets, we want to replace the water mains and the water laterals underneath.”
Miller explained the request funding, if approved, would come out of the water enterprise fund, a self-sufficient fund paid for through water bills.
“We moved $114,000 out of fiscal year 2017 in the water fund for this purpose,” he said. “We would like to move another $285,000 out of the water fund balance. We need to permission to spend the $400,000 for these water main and water lateral improvements.”
When questioned how his department discovered the aging water mains that needed replacement, Public Works Director Hal Adkins told the Mayor and Council his department does comprehensive research on all utilities and infrastructure prior to a repaving project.
“Most people don’t realize we do an exhaustive analysis on any given street,” he said. “We look for sewer lines, we’re looking for water lines and we’re dealing with the gas company and other utilities. We look at the storm drain system. It’s like slicing and looking at it sideways.”
Adkins said water mains are the systems that often need replacing the most, largely because of their age.
“In some cases, the water mains are the oldest systems,” he said. “A lot of them have leaded joints that tend to leak and cause problems. As we go through a selection of streets in any given year, we go through that analysis.”
Adkins said it is not unusual to have to replace water mains and other utilities prior to repaving projects and typically it goes unnoticed because the money is available in the water enterprise fund.
“Normally, we have it covered,” he said. “This time around there is a substantial shortfall for what we have discovered and what we feel is due diligence on our part and that is these pipes.”
Adkins explained how funding is set aside each year in the water fund in anticipation of needed repairs and replacements, but the scope of the replacements needed this year went beyond what was allocated.
“We allocate a specific amount each year that’s affordable to our rate structure,” he said. “It goes in our capital account under what I like to call miscellaneous funds for water main replacement. It could be $200,000, $300,000, or whatever is affordable in that given year. This year, the workload is going to exceed what we funded.”
When asked if just the four streets in question were being repaved this year, Adkins told the Mayor and Council the ones that needed water main replacements were just four of many scheduled for repaving.
“We’re doing a heck of lot more than just these four streets,” he said. “These are just the ones where I need to replace the pipes.”
When asked how many of the water main replacements and other infrastructure improvements are done in-house with department staff, Adkins said it depends on the number and size of the projects each year.
“What I basically do is make an administrative decision in any given year on what projects can be done in house,” he said. “Other projects I have to outsource. When we have so much on our plate that exceeds what we can do, we outsource it through the competitive bid process.”
Councilman Dennis Dare pointed out there was time when he was city manager that the town’s public works construction division would have handled nearly all projects such as water main replacements and other infrastructure improvements. However, during the last recession nearly a decade ago, the town’s budget was cut drastically and some “low hanging fruit” was removed and significant cuts to the construction division were made as a result.
“We used to have the largest construction company on the Eastern Shore,” he said. “As part of that $5 million cut out of the budget in 2008, we downsized that with the equipment and manpower. We kept it at a level to do everyday repairs and smaller projects, but anything larger than that was contracted out.”
Adkins agreed there was a time when his department would handle nearly all infrastructure improvements.
“We had a big company,” he said. “We had as many as 100 people and many of them were full-time all winter long.”
