State funds North Havre sewer upgrade project

A project several years in the making has come through for North Havre residents, with the state fully funding a project to upgrade the sewer system in the unincorporated community.

“It’s very good news for the users of that system, for a lot of different reasons,” Bear Paw Development Corp. executive director Paul Tuss said this morning. “But primarily it’s good news because it’s 100 percent grant funded.”

Bear Paw has been working on a project to replace exposed sewer force mains that run under the Milk River en route to the wastewater treatment plant and to replace antiquated pumping equipment in one of the rural special improvement districts served by the sewer system.

Gov. Steve Bullock announced Monday that the Department of Commerce had approved a $211,500 grant through the Community Development Block Grant program for the project.

“Providing clean drinking water and proper upgrades to wastewater facilities is necessary for the public health of folks in Hill County,” Bullock said in a press release. “Through wastewater improvements, we can ensure that this plumbing is not affecting the surrounding environment, and ensure that Montanans are drinking safe and clean water.”

“I appreciate what this money will do for Hill County,” Hill County Commission Chair Mike Wendland said in the release. “We’ve been in the process of working on wastewater improvement in North Havre, so this is a great step to finally move this project forward.”

The Legislature approved a grant through the Treasure State Endowment Program that will pay the rest of the $423,000 project.

The next phase will be to finalize the engineering of the project, which could go out to bid this winter with construction potentially starting next spring.

Tuss said that projects like the sewer repair and upgrade usually include a loan portion, which the users would have to repay, generally with a rate increase.

With the full funding from the state, this project will not require a rate increase from the residents of the two RSIDs served by the system.