Tuesday, October 24, 2000
Abilene to review Ivie pipeline
plan
By Samuel Segrist
Reporter-News Staff Writer
The Abilene City Council will look Thursday
at how best to acquire the rights of way for the pipeline to O.H.
Ivie Reservoir.
The council meets at 9 a.m. at City Hall,
555 Walnut St.
City administrators want the council to
declare a public necessity for the rights of way to the land under
which the future Ivie pipeline will rest. The next step is public
condemnation through which the city acquires the land through
legal means — a process often known as “eminent domain.”
Earlier in the year, City Hall reported
that all of the rights of way for the pipeline were secured. Things
changed after some of the land switched owners or was involved
in family disputes, and at least one landowner asked to renegotiate
his deal.
“All of them had committed at one time,”
said City Manager Roy McDaniel.
Last week, six small parcels of land were
in dispute. The city manager said City Hall has since come to
terms with two of the landowners, and also hopes to have most
of the other deals wrapped up by the end of the week.
Thursday’s resolution calls for the
city to hire an appraiser to consider the value of the rights-of-way
and work a deal with any remaining landowners. If an agreement
is not reached, City Hall will ask the council’s permission
to condemn the land at its Nov. 9 meeting.
The city has been acquiring rights-of-way
for a pipeline to Ivie since the lake was completed in 1990. City
Hall owned 75 percent of the easements necessary to build the
line before January, when the City Council ordered City Hall to
proceed as if the line would be built as soon as possible.
If the council grants approval to project
plans at the beginning of next year, the pipeline could be completed
in spring 2002.
Also on Thursday, the board will consider
what to do with the Ivie water once it makes the 50-mile trek
to Abilene.
City Hall wants the council to approve $1.2
million to design a water treatment plant for Ivie water. The
council has not yet determined how large the plant will be when
and if it opens in 2002.
The engineering firm CH2M Hill proposes
to open the plant with a capacity of 8 millions gallons a day.
The plans would include space for future expansion.
The proposal would cost $17 million. Along
with a projected $43 million cost of the Ivie pipeline, the total
cost would jump to $60 million.
However, some council members expressed
doubt in September that 8 million gallons a day would be enough.
According to designers, the plant can be expanded at intervals
of 4 million gallons, with each expansion costing $5.5 million.
A fully expanded plant capable of treating
and pumping 24 million gallons a day would cost $35 million.
The meeting also includes a discussion of
finally connecting the city to the Ivie water once the liquid
is treated.
The site for the Ivie treatment plant is
four miles south of Abilene’s pipe network.
City Hall is proposing to pay up to $24,500
to engineering firm Jacob & Martin, Inc., for a plan to connect
the Ivie plant with the rest of the city’s water distribution
system. The new pipes would have to be in place by spring 2002
to carry the arriving Ivie water.
Thursday’s meeting will also end in
an extended session about the city’s water supply. Water
Utilities Director Dwayne Hargesheimer will brief the council
on the effect of the recent rainfall to the water supply and the
state of other water projects.
Contact city government writer
Samuel Segrist at 676-6744 or segrists@abinews.com.
Check out our Web site at www.reporternews.com
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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