CITY, TWIN LAKES AGREE ON SEWERS

A plan to bring city sewers to the Twin Lakes Subdivision is back on track now that the price is right.

The City Council and Twin Lakes residents Tuesday night agreed to a city-staff plan that would provide sewers to the 90-home subdivision at an estimated cost of $4,792 an acre or 11 cents a square foot.

The per-acre estimate is about half the price of an earlier estimate of $9,065 an acre and closer to the original, August 1992 estimate of $3,424 an acre.

The $9,065 figure was based on 20.8 cents a square foot.

The estimates don't include the cost of acquiring easements in the subdivision situated just south of Hopper Road and west of Interstate 55.

If all the subdivision property owners donate the easements, there wouldn't be any additional cost.

"We can't guarantee you a price until we get all the easements," Mayor Al Spradling III said.

The final square-footage figure would be the maximum cost that the city would bill to property owners. If construction bids came in lower, the savings would be passed on to the property owners, Spradling said.

Some 60 Twin Lakes residents attended the study session at City Hall.

Doug Leslie, interim city manager, said the city can reduce the cost to the property owners by combining the lateral and trunk sewer projects.

They had been planned as separate projects, with the city footing the bill for the construction of the trunk sewer from Route K north to the subdivision and property owners paying for the sewer lines within the neighborhood.

Under the latest plan, the two projects would be combined. The city would still pay for the trunk sewer and residents would pay for the lateral sewers.

City Engineer J. Kensey Russell said it amounts to cost shifting.

The trunk sewer project is expected to cost less than originally calculated. With those savings, the city could keep the combined project within the estimated price tag of $1.5 million.

"Everyone wants to see the project proceed," Leslie said.

Councilman Melvin Gateley said he wanted the property owners to get "a square deal."

The sewer project could be completed within a year, depending on how long it takes for the city to obtain the nearly 100 easements.

The subdivision, which has septic tanks, was annexed two years ago.

Twin Lakes residents appeared ready to ditch the sewer project last month, saying that the projected cost of $9,000 an acre in special assessments was too high.

But Tuesday night, residents said they could live with the new cost figures.

"We think you have done an excellent job," resident Truman Waldrup told the council.

Fellow resident Ray Miller said it is time to move ahead with the project.