By Jon Johnson
PIMA—The Pima School District is constructing a new high school on the west side of town, just north of Highway 70. However, as it currently stands, a decision on how to handle the school’s wastewater still needs to be made.
As it currently sits, the town and school basically have two options to ensure waste removal will be in optimal effect upon the school’s intended opening in August. The school has been granted $1.7 million from the state for that purpose and has enough funds to install a new sewer pipe across Highway 70 into the existing sewer system near the Speedway gas station at the intersection of 200 South. That option is priced at $500,000; however, any funds not used for the sewer project will have to be returned to the state.
The second option would be to construct a new pipeline that heads north from the school directly into the town’s lift station at its sewer ponds on the other side of Ash Creek. This option would also allow for other new hookups, including commercial ones, and is projected to cost $3.4 million.
According to Pima Town Manager Vernon Batty, the second option, while pricer, is optimal to accommodate the school and future growth and to retire some of the town’s old sewer lift stations, eventually saving money.
“If we have a new line that runs north from there to the sewer ponds, then it gives us the option of running our sewer from our two current in-town lift stations and eliminating those,” Batty told the Gila Herald. “That’s our ultimate goal. That would be huge for us to eliminate both those lift stations.”
While Batty said calculating the cost of maintaining the in-house lift stations was difficult, the big fear is finding replacement parts when they eventually fail. He said each lift station costs about $400,000 to replace if necessary.
At its February meeting, the Pima Town Council voted 4-1 to approve up to $500,000 in expenditure for the sewer expansion project. Councilperson Georgia Luster voted in opposition.
That means the town and school are still short roughly $1.2 million to fund the sewer expansion in the future. Batty said he and Pima Superintendent Sean Rickert are looking at ways to raise the funding, including state and federal grants, forgivable loans, and donations from businesses.
However, if the plan is to build it alongside the rest of the school’s construction, it will have to be completed sooner rather than later.
