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priority areas (those with contaminated wells) is. a pproximate ly$6.86 million, which isn't affordable to be spread across the 174 households that live in Gem Lake. This is particularly the case. because these same households have been investing in and maintaining their own .groundwater wells. Brief description of who benefits from this project: People living and working in Gem Lake would benefit from this project. by having access to safe drinking water, which would provide longterm positive health impacts. Another benefit of the project is that hydrants will be installed. and connected to the new water distribution system, allowing the local fire department to more effectively fight fires within the community. Brief description of the community support for the project: When contamination was found in private wells in the City of Gera Lake in autumn of 2021,.the leadership of the city sought to involve local citizens immediately in a campaign of information sharing. These efforts were successful, and members of our community demonstrated. repeatedly they intended to stay informed of this important issue. With the help of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), Gem Lake sponsored online and live meetings to explain the situation, disseminate all information that.was available and provide experts to help citizens assess their potential risks. As. Mayor of Gem Lake, I was gratified to see thee nth usiastic participation in this information blitz. For the next year, the MPCA remained involved and attended a variety of addition al.city council meetings where well testing updates were presented. We. spent the. following year studying options for future delivery of safe:drinking.water to all citizens in.our community. This: involved hiring an outside. engineering firm to assess Gem Lakes abil.i.tyto install a municipal water system to all or part of our city,. where. the water source might: come from and how much it would cost. The public has remained committed to long term involvement in this problem -solving exercise. As a. very small community, we used to have 1- 2 members of the public at our meetings. in the past year, while. we study water system solutions, we have sometimes had 30-40 people at meetings. One example is a "water summit" meeting that we held in September of 2022. At this summit, we presented detailed information on municipal water system options and. spent.severaI hours sharing data and answering questions from the public. Members of the Gem Lake community are. committed to the delivery of safe drinking water for all and have shown this repeatedly over the last 18.. months. Amount of funding requested for project: $5,488,000