By Zach Jensen,
Spillville’s water system has been in need of replacement for more than a decade, and the county’s resurfacing of Winneshiek County Road W14 has provided an opportunity for such a project to take place.
Former Spillville mayor and longtime city council member Tom Straube said a 2023 fire in the town’s business district emphasized the project was beyond past due – Straube said, because the city’s water tower only contains several days of water for the entire community, if the hydrants had been fully opened to douse the flames, the city’s entire water supply could have been used up within an hour. Instead, the town called for mutual aid from nearly all nearby fire departments in order to extinguish last year’s blaze.
Straube said the Spillville City Council started discussing the replacement of the water tower and mains about 10 years ago, when Iowa State Sen. Mike Klimesh was the town’s mayor.
“The need for this project has been on Spillville’s radar for about a decade,” said the town’s current mayor Paul Wermers. “The sewer system faced issues back in 2008 due to flooding under Mayor Michael Klimesh, who successfully secured funding for its replacement. Over time, we also had to replace compromised sections of the water pipe — particularly on Backstreet. With the current project, we are addressing the last section of the water and sewer infrastructure on Main Street, which will complete our upgrade to brand-new water and sewer lines.”
Wermers said the project involves installing new water mains and sewers on the east side of Main Street and replacing the old infrastructure with fresh, modern pipes.
“We expect the project to be completed in several phases, starting in August and continuing through next summer for the water tank,” he said. “The exact timeline will depend on various factors such as weather and construction conditions.”
Straube said the primary reason the city is completing the water main project now is because of the Winneshiek County Road W14 resurfacing project.
“The existing water and sewer were put in in 1969, so we’re trying to be proactive and get it in ahead of the new street,” he said.
City officials originally applied for assistance from Iowa’s State Revolving Fund to help pay for the project — an estimated 82 percent of the town is considered low-income.
“We were told we could apply for an SRF loan from the state,” he said, “and if we scored high enough, we’d get half the project paid for by that. But, then they told us, since our water system wasn’t failing, we didn’t qualify. We were trying to be proactive, so our system doesn’t fail. “
Straube said the town was eventually approved for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant, which brought the total project cost down to $1.6 million.
“The remaining amount will be covered through a combination of city funds and other financial resources, including the Iowa Economic Development Authority, which administers the federal Community Development Block Grant program,” Wermers said.
The project involves replacing all water mains on Main Street from the city shop to the north bridge. The city’s water tower will also be replaced with an on-ground storage tank. Straube said the change will increase water pressure for many Spillville residents.
“The current water tower is gravity fed,” he said. “The new system will be pressurized, so everyone’s water pressure will be the same for once.”
The biggest complaint Straube foresees as a result of the project is that the town’s water rates will likely need to be increased.
“Our water and sewer rates have been the lowest around, and that’s going to change once the project is completed,” he said.
Spillville’s water project is slated to begin Aug. 12. All of Main Street is expected to be reduced to one lane of traffic during the project. Simultaneously, Winneshiek County Road W14 will be resurfaced — first from Fort Atkinson to Spillville and then from Spillville to Ridgeway. County officials agreed to let the town’s water main project settle for one year before resurfacing the portion of the county road which runs through Spillville.
“It’s exciting,” Wermers said. “It’s rewarding to be involved in projects that will benefit Spillville for years to come.”
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