Spring City moving forward with
culinary water redevelopment
By James Tilson
Staff writer
Apr. 12, 2018
SPRING CITY—The city council in Spring City moved forward with plans to redevelop its culinary water springs last week.
The council meeting on Thursday, April 5, started with two public hearings—one on a discussion of water revenue bonds for the redevelopment of Spring City’s five springs and the other on the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the redevelopment project.
Neither hearing elicited any comment from the public.
Tyler Faddis, project manager of Jones and DeMille, addressed the council regarding the timeframe for the spring redevelopment project. Faddis presented his firm’s preliminary plans to the council for their review, which he expected to be completed within two weeks.
The next phase of the project will depend on physical access to the springs.
Faddis told the council he wants to put out the preliminary ad for bids on May 17, with a pre-bid conference to be held on May 25. That conference would consist of Faddis and the interested contractors traveling to the springs to inspect them prior to submitting bids.
Faddis will then set a June 7 deadline for interested contractors to submit their bids on the project. The bids would then be opened at the council meeting later that same day. The council would review the bids, along with Faddis, and accept the winning bid by the next council meeting.
Faddis said he expects three or four local contractors to bid on the project.
His firm will not bid but will continue on as construction oversight.
Faddis told the council he hoped to have the project completed before the August peak period begins.
The council then discussed the need for a water-rate increase study.
Dixie Earl, city recorder, told the council Utah’s Permanent Community Impact Fund Board (CIB) told Spring City as part of its loan for the redevelopment project that it “highly suggests” a study be undertaken as part of the project.
Earl presented a preliminary review of Spring City’s water rates compared to other local cities. Earl noted the city staff had concluded a $2 rate increase would pay for the loan payment and noted that other cities throughout Sanpete were considering raising their water rates as well.
She told council members they would have to review the preliminary findings, and the city would give notice and set public hearings on the issue for next month.
The council also got an update from Dave Figgat, the entrepreneur who has spearheaded the effort to bring a bottled water plant to Spring City.
Figgat reminded the council and the audience that his company was not asking for any funds from the city, would only need 1.5 acre-feet water from the city and would generate between $350,000 to $400,000 a year for the city from its sales.
The company would be named Spring City Water and would feature bottles with art from local artists on a rotating basis.
At this point, the company is looking for test markets, mostly along the Wasatch Front.
Figgat said the company had approached Lee’s Market, Ridley’s Family Market and Harmon’s, among others. Preliminary findings have been very favorable, and he expressed his optimism.
He said the plans now, if the test-market results are favorable, are to put in a bottling plant in two years.
Figgat cautioned the audience to not be worried about the potential impact—the plant would take up only 2,000 square feet because Spring City Water will be a “boutique brand” and will not deal in high volume.
