Red Rock Rural Water System Replacing the Water Plant
Wed 7-7-2021
(Jackson, MN) The Red Rock Rural Water System that serves Jackson County, and 8 other counties within the area, is replacing the water treatment plant. Dominic Jones, who is the Red Rock Rural Water System Manager, says the existing plant has lasted beyond the initial estimation of 20 years.
"The project is going very well. This project does impact our entire system. Its replacing the existing water plant, water treatment plant that Red Rock started with in 1985 when that first went online. That plant is very old. It was estimated life at that time to be 20 years. We've surpassed that by over 20 some years so we've kept that plant running as long as we could."
The Jackson County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday and approved the joint powers agreement between the counties served by Red Rock Rural Water System. This will guarantee the payment of general obligation bonds as Red Rock is funding the new water treatment plant. They will issue $4.8 million dollars of debt for the project and Cottonwood County will issue the bonds. Red Rock is responsible for repayment of the bonds but if they were to default then each of the 9 counties would pay their share. Jackson County was the last of the 9 counties to take action on this item.
In other business the board approved a public hearing date for the Capital Improvement Plan or CIP. The commissioners must advertise notice and hold a public hearing before they can adopt a CIP. The public hearing will be on August 3rd at 9:30 am. The commissioners also awarded the Government Center West Addition Project to Brennan Construction as their bid came in below the estimate of $1,320,000. The project is slated to start September 1st.