Town of Francis

PROJECT PURPOSE

The Town of Francis needs to make critical improvements to parts of the water system?s infrastructure, namely, the town?s water tower. In 2019, and after a DEQ violation, a survey was conducted on the town?s sole water tower and the findings report included several critical findings concerning deterioration of the tower, including the foundation, anchor bolts, holes on roof, and others. The inevitable loss of structural support is imminent and would cause a complete loss of this critical piece of infrastructure, along with creating a possible public health issue. The number of citizens indicated on the 2020 census is 320 and the Public Works currently serves 183 water customers. Given the number of customer accounts along with the extreme cost for this project has created a hardship for the town. In the last several years the town has focused on replacing 100+ year-old cast-iron lines that were having continuous leaks and the source of a DEQ violation for high lead readings. The town?s sewer infrastructure is also in need of repair to the air-crossing sections within the infrastructure, which is also competing for already stretched and limited funds. Respectfully request funding consideration.

EVIDENCE

An evaluation of the towers condition was conducted by Tank Industry Consultants. This report listed deficiencies in the areas of structure, ANSI/OSHA safety related, and operational conditions.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

The community as a whole has been impacted in that the only two operators are both 70 years or older and extremely high-risk category for COVID; one actually contracted the virus twice and the other has been hospitalized from underlining high risk health issues. Both employees are considered essential personnel in order to maintain infrastructure. This community is largely an aging population, which are more prone to water born bacteria. Ensuring reliably clean and safe drinking water is essential.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

For this water infrastructure project, performance will be measured in two different ways. Initially, by eliminating the critical findings on the tower inspection report. Secondly, over time, the success of the project will be validated by verifying the safe storage of the communities drinking water. DEQ governs the required testing, frequency of test, and test limits of each sample.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

One-time project will not need continued funding