Did you know that the Riley Mt Water Project could balloon to $8,000,000?

Greetings Llano elected officials and City Management,

     Only one bid was received Tuesday for constructing a municipal class well at the city's water rights lease on RR312. The bid was $977,777. This is more than double the estimate of $480,000 per completed production well presented by city engineers last year to the city council. Please see presentation here.

     This calls into serious question the validity of the engineering estimate of $3,635,900 for the entire project. Using Steger-Bizzell's published figure, the well site is 8.7 miles from Highway 16. That makes it 10 miles to a potential connection to the city's water system at the south storage tank. Their estimate of $2,675,900 for the transmission part of the project now looks quite low.. They also don't include easements, water treatment, or pumping stations.

    The cost for this project could easily balloon to 7 or 8 million dollars and gravely affect city utility customers already burdened with very high bills. After financing for 20 years, it could add $300 or more a year for each utility account.

    Wouldn't it would be prudent for the city to solicit revised estimates on the total cost of this project before committing any additional money? The question of transmission easements should also be addressed as well as contingency plans for radium mitigation. Otherwise, we could find ourselves in the middle of a very expensive project with huge and escalating sunk costs.

Thank you,

John Gray

 

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