Update on FVWD pipeline replacement and the siren alert system
The Fern Valley Water District (FVWD) had its first meeting with five board members last week since two of its members resigned — one in August and the other in October. The boards’ members are now Richard Schnetzer, Walter Bonneau (replaced Trischa Clark who sold her house), Gary Erb (replaced James Rees), Robert Krieger and Jim Gates.
The district paid $12,500 to the Idyllwild Fire Protection District (IFPD) for the emergency siren. The two districts partnered in the project. IFPD Chief Mark LaMont was on the Zoom call to answer any questions.
LaMont said the siren was delivered and he expects to have the first testing of the siren right after the new year. He estimates the siren will be up running and utilized by mid-January. FVWD will be able to use the siren alert system to alert FVWD customers of a water contamination in addition to IFPD’s ability to alert the community of a fire or other type of emergency.
Emergency pipeline replacement project
FVWD General Manager Victor Jimenez told the board during the meeting that the pipeline replacement project is slated to begin the first week of January. The project will occur on Rising Glen Road, Granite Springs, Shady View Drive and Sunset View Drive. The project will replace about 2,000 feet of pipeline.
“The materials have been ordered and the project is slated to begin the first week of January,” said Jimenez. “So, hopefully we will be able to beat the weather and get that knocked out pretty quickly.”
Regarding repaving the road after the pipeline is replaced, Jimenez said, “I would anticipate that we will be able to get away with only doing a minimal paving on a good portion of it but there was a good section on Sunset View [Drive] that is fairly compromised. Unfortunately, the road up there was covered in Petromat before it was asphalted. So, the Petromat doesn’t allow the water to come through so it essentially created some little underground rivers that followed underneath the asphalt.
“So, there are some areas where it looks like the roadway could be compromised. There’s a good chance that there’s a good little stretch on Sunset View [Drive] we are probably going to have to open it up which will mean a little bit more asphalting than we would like but I think we are still going to come in considerably under what the original budget was on the asphalting and I will bring that to the board at that point because we get a better break the more asphalt we do. So, the cost between just doing half the road and doing the entire road may come down to $15,000, which really is not a lot when you consider the end product. I think everybody was pretty impressed how Upper Rim Rock [Road] and Dogwood [Road] and Azalea [Drive] turned out with the entire road being repaved.
“I’ll bring it to the board and let the board make that decision when we get to that point but I think either way we will end up with a good product. But there is a good portion of Sunset View [Drive] that I think we are going to have to excavate and make sure that it’s compacted correctly and that those rivers haven’t compromised it where we are going to be back in there dealing with sinkholes in the future.”
El-Co Contractors, Inc. will complete the project. The company recently finished another pipeline replacement project in the district.
Jimenez wrote in a prior general manager’s report, “This is the project that was going to be proposed for fiscal year 2021/22, but due to the consistent failures, staff is offering the option of undertaking the project as an emergency as soon as possible.”
The project will reduce the reserves by $571,000 by project completion. This includes paying for repaving the streets once the work is complete. “We estimate that the reserves could drop to below $500,000 before revenue starts to replenish the reserves,” Jimenez wrote in the same report.
