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City of Winslow Public Works Director Tim Westover is looking forward to the New Year. Westover took over as the director of the department last year and has been helping to continue the renovative spirit that has taken hold of Winslow.
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Westover said, “We have a lot of projects coming up and I am looking forward to working with the new city manager, John Barkely. This is a first for me, being with a new manager but I am positive about where we are headed.”
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Where Winslow is headed is towards some major changes and improvements in its infrastructure. Westover explained, “First up for 2019 is what we are calling the Apache Parallel Project. This is then next phase in the water treatment improvement plan, so Phase Three. The new line will run down Williamson Avenue at Gilmore Street. It will run north toward the hospital and over to I-40. Then, we will have to bore a four-foot hole underneath the highway and run the line through there. Then, it will tie into a new manhole that we recently put in. It is a large project and will cost about $1.5 million. Sometime in the future, we will run that line from North Road into the plant, so we will actually have two lines running into the treatment plant.”
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He mentioned that the current line that runs into the treatment plant had two failures over the last three years. “One just recently, where we had to replace the line manhole to manhole and get bypass pumping. In a way, we have been lucky that it hasn’t fully collapsed. If it were to collapse, we would have a lake.”
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Westover continued, “One of the major reasons for this project is that currently, we have one sewer line that handles almost 80 percent of the city’s wastewater. That line is a 24-inch line that runs under I-40 off of Apache Avenue. That line is not in the best of shape. If we were to have a problem or an expansion, we are limited by what we have there. We will also be putting a redundant line down Gilmore Street so if we ever have problems with this line we can stop it and the sewer will continue to flow without issue.”
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According to Westover, the Apache Parallel Project is slated to take the city four to five months to complete. “Immediately following that project we will begin the Apache Bypass Line. In years past homeowners have been allowed to build right over the top of the main sewer line of the town. It goes through the middle of properties, under structures, garages and homes. We are going to abandon that line and have wastewater run through that Apache Parallel line while we build a new line that is in the city’s right-of-way. It will no longer run under private properties.
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“We were going to do that line first but after we looked further at the situation we found the need to have another line to bypass the sewage too so that we aren’t having to pump waste from manhole to manhole while we are building the new line.”
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Funding for the project comes from a loan secured by the City of Winslow from the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA) in the amount of $5.1 million. That loan will be repaid at a 2.8 percent interest rate over the next 30 years. Nearly $1 million of that will be forgiven. Local contractor McCauley Construction has been awarded the bid for the Apache Parallel Project in the amount of nearly $1.4 million.
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To help mitigate the WIFA loan, the City of Winslow passed a wastewater rate increase for fiscal year 2019. According to Willdan Financial Services, the city’s financial consultant, an increase of $1.87 per wastewater customer will go into effect at the beginning of the year.
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Also on the Public Works calendar for 2019 is a sidewalk project for the east end of town. “It is our Renaissance VI project,” said Westover. “It will be similar to what we did downtown with the sidewalks and new street lights, as well as running power to the lights underground. That will be from Snider Avenue all the way to the Sweetland Community Garden on Second and Third streets. In my opinion, that will dress up the most needed area. It needs sidewalks and lighting. That will be funded from the Capital Improvements Fund, our one percent sales tax money and also, it’s a matching grant from ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation). So, $200,000 is from our sales tax fund and the rest is federal money. That project will take about four months and is set to get started in the spring.”
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The softball field at Hayden Walton Memorial Sports Complex on Maple Street will also be getting some attention in 2019. Westover said, “We are going to be doing some concrete work, some work on the stand and the announcers booth. We will also continue improvements on the Little League Field in that complex. We will be replacing the old grandstands there.”
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Westover is hopeful about the many projects on his calendar for 2019. “I am, finally, looking to hire another person this year. The job has already been posted to the city website. It is called ‘assistant public works director.’ We have a lot going on and the reason why is because of the success of the one percent sales tax. We are trying to utilize it to benefit everyone. It will be nice to have some help and to really get to work continuing to improve Winslow.”
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