NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Commissioner Ron Hirst said the Board of County Commissioners looked at the water and sewer situation near Yoder for a long time before deciding to raise rates.
"We've known this since the tests have come up well over a year ago, that we've had a situation down there," Hirst said. "We're limited to where District 101 can put the well, because of the water limitations, as well as the engineering that goes in it and the discovery of what is in the best interest and will make the most sense for delivering potable water that's safe."
At this point, bringing water down from another part of the county looks like the best option.
"At the present time, we're looking at some engineering with regard to the costs involved in receiving water and purchasing water from Hutchinson," Hirst said.
A policy decision needs to be made that if there is going to have to be boring under the highway and the riverbed anyway, does it make sense at this time or not to bring more than just 101's needs across, to allow for future economic development.
"We have about three industrial areas," Hirst said. "We've got HABIT (Hutch Airbase Industrial Tract), we have the new property purchased to do an industrial facility on and then we have the present industrial in the City of Hutchinson. Sometimes, we have a tendency to just try to handle fires as they come up and solve those fires and I don't mean the kind that's heat. It kind of brought up to me that maybe we need to look at doing it all at once, rather than to bore twice underneath the river. I don't know whether time-wise, that works, whether the engineering works. We've set aside some economic development money out of the ARPA funds for infrastructure for the new industrial tract. I don't know how that will work, or whether there's even a possibility, but sometime we need to look at how we can do that. It depends a lot on the time KDHE gives the county to solve the nitrate problem."
Public Works Director Don Brittain said previously that he thought the water from Hutchinson, if they go that way, would possibly be blended with water from the 101 well to decrease cost to residents of that district.