By a unanimous vote the Solon City Council approved a formal application for water service outside of the city limits for the MacBride Pointe Subdivision by Kyle Skogman with MMS Consultants, Inc. engineer Scott Pottorff. However, it is only one more step in the process to connect the 26-house subdivision to the Gallery Acres West water main.

City Administrator Cami Rasmussen noted the application was originally submitted in 2022 and reviewed periodically by the Utilities Committee.

“There was a time period that needed to pass before both the Utilities Committee and city staff were interested in discussing whether this was a good time for another development to hook on.” The consensus, Rasmussen said, was to take a period of time to see how the Gallery Acres connection was working, what was going well, what wasn’t, and to identify any concerns.

Soon after one of the city’s wells was down during a drought, which prompted the city to wait a bit longer before taking action. Conversations last year started to move forward with the application, she said, leading to it being presented to the Council for formal consideration during their Wednesday, October 15 meeting.

According to the application there is a current average monthly water demand of 275,00 gallons and a peak daily demand of 15,000 gallons.

“By accepting this application, that will then direct (City Engineer) Dave Schechinger to do the next level of research that needs to be done so he can evaluate our current water supply and storage to evaluate if there is an impact on our current water operations,” Rasmussen said.

What the City Engineer will examine

Schechinger said the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) wants five years of records to be looked at, which in this case includes Gallery Acres West’s connection.

“What we’re trying to capture is an average year and a dry year. We’ll look at how the system operates as far as a per-person, we’ll project that over the heavy use period in a dry year, and we’ll also look at the current. We also want to take a look at how Gallery Acres is operating their system – how often they have to flush (the line), how much (gallons) they flush, and water quality because it is a long line. So, we’ll need to talk to their certified operator. We need to evaluate the well draw-down’s. During certain periods of heavy usage the well operates at a lower level (to be determined for each of the City’s wells).”

Schechinger said they would also study how the system performed during times when a well was down for repairs.

“We want to get a good look at the system and make sure we understand how that’s functioning and what the impacts are under different scenarios and how (MacBride Pointe) impacts the system.”

Schechinger anticipates it would take at least a couple of months to gather all of the necessary information to provide the Council with the best advice toward making their final decision.

Senior Support seeks more collaboration with the City

Jill Weetman, founder and President of Solon Senior Support addressed the council during public comments representing all of Solon’s senior groups – Support, Advocates, Dining, and Transportation as well as the Solon Community Food Pantry and pickle ball group (Johnson County Pickle Ball Club). Weetman told the council the groups have been meeting since August to discuss how best to serve Solon’s seniors before providing an overview of various programs (including coffee groups, Euchre, and Chair Yoga) and their participation numbers. Weetman noted the groups are all non-profit organizations with funding through grants and donations. The City does pay the salary for the Senior Dining Manager and contributes $60/month for the Chair Yoga program, she added.

“We’d love to work more closely with the city, getting involved in more programs, especially maybe as we work toward a new community center. We are very proud of the care, activities, and services we provide for our older adults but we need collaboration with the city so that we can do even better work,” said Weetman.

Cindy Jensen, Solon Senior Transport Coordinator, laid out the needs and desires of the group.

“We need a space for seniors to gather. Currently we’re using the Library, the Community Center, the Methodist Church, and the Family Life Center. It would be really nice if we could have one place that we could call our own,” said Jensen.

She asked when planning begins for a new community center, that the seniors have a seat at the table, “…to ensure our seniors are considered.”