Spring Hill, Tennessee
Spring Hill’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen addressed the city’s need to find and implement solutions to its decreasing water supply due to growth.
The topic was the subject of several discussion items Monday, which included plans to construct a reservoir at the Stone Creek property off Derryberry Lane.
The reservoir would provide what’s estimated to be a 200 million gallon-need for reservoir storage, assistant city administrator Dan Allen said.
Monday’s topic included discussion about the city’s already approved memorandum of understanding (MOU) with consultants Freehold Communities and Civil Site Design Group, and where the project stands today.
Part of the project’s preliminary stages, Allan said, is determining if some of the initial construction can be repurposed later on, which would in turn save a significant amount of taxpayer money.
“The general basis of the conversation has been in order to go quickly or try and expedite construction,” Allen said. “The way this proposal becomes a win-win for the city is if we can kind of balance the size and exactly how the reservoir is sited, whatever material comes out of that that they can then use on the site. It would be millions of dollars to waste that material.”
When the discussion was brought before BOMA members, Alderman Matt Fitterer asked, if the need were to present itself, could the city expand the reservoir at a future time. And if it can, could that create issues, such as potential water seepage into nearby Rutherford Creek.
“200 million gallons, I think, gets us several decades into the future,” Fitterer said. “As far as the partnership and the location of the reservoir, I don’t have questions with that. I just don’t know if we should be asking for more.”
Allen replied saying the bottom of the reservoir, according to the current plans, would fall below Rutherford Creek’s bottom.
“How far down can that go,” Allen said, though uncertain the 200 million gallons estimated would be adequate for the foreseeable future.
“My opinion on the original analysis, I think it’s enough to carry us to full buildout of Spring Hill,” Allen said. “I think we are OK, but we can look into maybe getting a little more.”
Allen later stressed that the timeline on the project is important to keep in mind, and that it won’t always be 100% leading up to its final approval process.
“We’ve got a concept that we believe could work, but we’re not going to have it fully designed by the time they are done trying to go through the entitlement process. And it probably also won’t be fully designed by the time they enter into some sort of agreement structure with the city,” Allen said.
“We need you guys thinking what your comfort level is with not having all of the answers, but having enough answers to try and move forward and have a general framework to discuss with these guys if there are significant changes, and how do we address that and who is potentially responsible?”
Alderman Trent Linville later asked Allen, “What kind of feedback do you want from us exactly?”
Allen responded saying the main thing is the city approves of the project as it is presented throughout the approval process, and that any significant changes, such as cost increases, to determine which party would be responsible, either the developer or the city.
“I do think this is a good start conceptually, and they’ve done multiple iterations and certainly worked on good faith,” Allen said. “They’ve demonstrated that yes, we can find a way to get a 200-million-gallon reservoir on the site and a theoretical path forward that can be constructed as quickly as possible.”
Since the item was only presented as discussion, no votes were taken Monday on the reservoir.
Jay Powell is a general reporter for The Daily Herald. Get up-to-date news in your inbox by subscribing to The Daily Herald newsletter at www.ColumbiaDailyHerald.com.
