Sewer grant helps Warroad prepare for future growth

In the summer of 1995, I worked a three month internship at The Warroad Pioneer, which I'm sorry to say has since ceased operation. This was the first professional newspaper that I worked for in my career, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. I had only worked at Bemidji State University's newspaper for about a year and half before landing the internship. At The Pioneer I gained experience in sports, feature, beat and government reporting. I designed pages, took and developed photographs and was responsible for community relations. The best part is that I remain friends with the owners nearly 30 years later.

July 4, 1995

By Devlyn Brooks

Warroad is bracing itself for expansion and as a result, has added some new sewer lines west of Danny's Pizza, along Highway 11.

After a multi-year study of the city's sewer system, City Superintendent Darrel Anderson said that they found a number of sewer lines in Warroad needed to be replaced.

The city of Warroad received a grant from FmHa of about $400,000 that helped pay for the installation of the new lines, Warroad Mayor Bob Marvin said. He explained that in order to receive the grant the city needed to spend over $1 million dollars on the sewer project.

He said that about $700,000 to $800,000 of the money spent was used to "rehab" the existing sewer lines.

The investigation of the old sewer lines showed that ground water seepage was getting into the sewer lines. This was accounting for a lot of water.

Anderson said that the primary goal "was to get rid of the extra clean water that was in the system." By "rehabbing" the sewer lines, Marvin said that it would remove 60,000 to 70,000 gallons of waste water a day.

Anderson said that this would save the city money because less filtration would be needed of the sewage and the city sewage ponds would last longer. That will also save money for the city, he said.

Larson said that if he had to give a dollar figure, "rehabbing" the old sewer system will probably save the city $5 million.

Marvin explained that the new lines being installed along Highway 11 were included in the original plans so that the project was big enough to qualify for the grant money.

Anderson said that new water lines couldn't be installed with the expansion sewer lines because the grant didn't allow for it. Installing water lines would have to be a new project.