Sheldon, Iowa — Representatives of the northwest Iowa Lewis & Clark Regional Water System communities that have yet to be connected to the system met with lawmakers in Sheldon recently.
Lewis & Clark Executive Director Troy Larson says that during the last legislative session, the system’s request for a $1.7 million “federal funding advance” was a COVID-19 casualty. He says $70M in projected revenue was removed from the Infrastructure Budget. Although Governor Kim Reynolds and local legislators advocated for keeping the L&C funding, Larson says the headwinds were too strong.
Vice-Chairman Murray Hulstein of Sioux Center said, “Without the pandemic, local legislators said we would have been in good shape. Thank you to the governor and legislators for going to bat for us! We know coming up short was not for lack of effort. Thanks as well to Senator Randy Feenstra and Rep. Dan Huseman for their long-time support and leadership!”
Feenstra is running for Congress and Huseman is retiring, so this was their last session.
Officials from Hull, Sheldon, Sibley and Sioux Center met in Sheldon with four legislators and two legislators-elect (unopposed in the general election) to provide a project update and discuss whether to make another federal funding advance request this session.
Hulstein says, “They provided helpful feedback and reiterated their strong support for Lewis & Clark given the significant economic development and quality of life impacts to northwest Iowa. No final decisions were made as much could change prior to January, but for now they encouraged us to plan on making another federal funding advance request. We will continue to work with Governor Reynolds and our legislators as the session approaches.”
Construction work continues in connecting Sioux Center to Lewis & Clark Regional Water System’s water supply.
North of Sioux Center, on Highway 75 near Bomgaars, Carstensen Contracting of Dell Rapids, S.D., has completed boring under the highway and extending a 24-inch diameter pipe to Sioux Center. By boring the pipe under the ground, the crew was able to continue constructing the water system without disrupting traffic on the highway. The crew has completed boring in several locations and is now installing mains to connect those segments.
The line from Beresford to Sioux Center is being done in three segments. In addition to the 10-mile segment going west from Sioux Center, which is hoped to be complete by December, crews were also working the other direction, from Beresford east for about 11 miles, and are nearly done with that. The third segment — about 13 miles — which includes the Big Sioux River crossing — is slated to start in September and is hoped to be done at the end of NEXT year — December 2021.
After Beresford’s new water tower is constructed, Sioux Center should expect to receive water from the Lewis & Clark system as early as spring of 2023. Since there is already a segment in use between Sioux Center and Hull, Hull will have access to the water as well. Then it’s just a matter of getting a line from Hull to Sheldon before Sheldon is able to receive the water.
Photo caption: Participants in the Sheldon legislative meeting (left to right): Sioux Center’s Murray Hulstein, Sheldon’s Sam Kooiker, Sibley’s Larry Pedley, Sibley’s Susan Sembach, Sibley’s Cory Dykstra, Sibley Mayor Jerry Johnson (purple shirt), Sioux Center’s Scott Wynja, Senator-Elect Jeff Taylor, Sheldon’s Todd Uhl, Rep.-Elect Dennis Bush, Sioux Center’s Adam Fedders, Rep. Dan Huseman, Hull Mayor Arlan Moss, Rep. Skyler Wheeler, Hull’s Jim Collins, Senator Zach Whiting, L&C’s Troy Larson, Rep. Jacob Bossman, Katie Graham (gov’t relations), Sibley’s Glenn Anderson and Paula Dierenfeld (gov’t relations). Not pictured Rep. John Wills.
