2015 Vol. 9 Issue 2 March - Laserfiche WebLink

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Gem Lake News Page 3 of 6 Water Feasibility Study Completed for Gem Lake Business District This second connection would be done for emergency purposes until additional connections to the system come on-line in the future. Until then, SEH recommends the emergency back-up connection be made to Vadnais Height via a 12 inch main south of Hoffman Road along the east side of Highway 61, once the water main connection to the White Bear Lake is in place. The connection of water on County Road E presents challenges in engineering, due primarily to the railroad bed that would have to be crossed. The cost of the connection would be approximately $274,000. (This is much less than originally estimated.) The drop in price happened because of the railroad has agreed to consider a less expensive way for the work to be done. This would involve temporarily suspending rail traffic while the tracks are taken up, the pipe is laid and the tracks put back in place. The previously suggested method involved complicated boring of piping underneath active rail traffic. The estimated cost of the emergency loop would be about $160,000, bringing the total project cost to about $434,000. The next steps would be to begin to set up public hearings on the subject of municipal water connections, and for SEH to begin to prepare plans and specifications for the project. Stay tuned to the newsletter and the city web-site for more information on this proposed project. Notice of any public hearings will also appear in the White Bear Press. Supplying municipal water to the Gem Lake business district is a not only feasible, it is necessary to the area's long-term growth and public safety, according to recent feasibility study completed by Short Elliott Hendrickson (SEH) for the City of Gem Lake. The study was authorized by the city council on November 18 of last year and was meant to be a first step in the process of deciding if and how a municipal water project would get off the ground. Most municipalities contemplating an expansion of municipal services, such as water, begin the process with a feasibility study. SEH began by looking at Gem Lake's previous Water Study, which was done in 2006. This earlier study identified three options for where water would be piped in from the City of White Bear. These three options included: a. County Road “E” at the Railroad Crossing b. Cedar Avenue and Hoffman Road at the Railroad Crossing c. Buerkle Road Crossing The County Road E option was the recommended option in the 2006 study due to its proximity to the initial anticipated service area, Hoffman's Corner and the city's desire to use White Bear's city water, due to its chemistry and make up. The current feasibility study also favors this as the most desirable option, due additionally to the fact that most business districts in cities have higher fire flow needs in the event of emergencies than residential areas have. This particular connection point on County Road E is close to the business district, therefore reducing the distance the water would need to travel to reach it. Another recommendation in the current feasibility study is to create an additional emergency connection to the Gem Lake water system. This is due to the fact that the initial system would be a dead end main, supplying a limited area, rather than a more conventional "looped" system.