Watertown Development Company asks Codington County to partner on $4.2 million lift‑station to open Calvin Industrial Park

Watertown Development Company (WDC) Executive Director Chris Clifton asked the Codington County Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday to consider partnering on infrastructure to finish out the Calvin Industrial Park, saying federal funds are available for a lift station but local matching and short‑term cash flow will be needed.

Clifton told the commission that the U.S. federal government has agreed to an 80/20 split on an approximately $4,200,000 lift station that would be sited on property WDC already owns, and that the station’s service area would cover about 450 acres around the park. He said roughly $1,100,000 in matching funds will be required to unlock the federal share and that the grant is reimbursement‑only, meaning the municipality or utility would need to advance funds for the local match and recover them later.

That lift station, Clifton said, would allow sewer to be extended into much of the surrounding watershed — two‑thirds of which he said is currently in the county — and would enable additional road and utility work the developer estimates at about $1,500,000 for road extension and further water and sewer work. Taken together, Clifton described the package as an approximately $6.5 million infrastructure investment needed to build out remaining lots in the park.

Why it matters: Clifton said the completed infrastructure would open roughly 400–450 acres to commercial and industrial development, raise surrounding land values and generate future tax revenue for the county and schools once parcels are annexed into the city for utility service.

Clifton said WDC has already extended a water line earlier in the project at a cost to WDC of about $800,000 and that an adjacent 17‑acre parcel is under option and backed by a letter of intent from a steel‑industry firm willing to expand on the site. Clifton described job creation tied to the prospective expansion as “on the order of tens of jobs” (the letter of intent cited a range described in the meeting as roughly 40–70 positions); an exact investment figure in the letter was not clear in the meeting record.

Clifton said the county’s participation could take several forms: a direct cash contribution for the match, sharing in short‑term cash flow that a municipal utility would advance because the federal grant reimburses expenditures, or future revenue sharing such as a tax increment financing (TIF) arrangement after annexation. He told commissioners he was meeting that day with EDA contacts, city staff and the municipal utility to coordinate next steps and asked the county to consider forming a partnership within roughly the next month to preserve the funding opportunity.

Commissioners asked for materials they could study. “Do you have that in digits? I mean, like a PowerPoint or a PDF or something that we could study and understand that issue a bit better?” Commissioner Gable asked. Clifton said he will provide more detailed materials and said WDC can work with the city and municipal utility to structure the front‑end financing needed to meet the reimbursement requirement.

The presentation concluded with no formal action requested of the commission at Tuesday’s meeting; Clifton said he would return with more details and work with staff on potential partnership options.

Ending: Clifton said his office would follow up with documents and a timeline and requested the commission consider partnership options; commissioners asked staff to review the financial and legal implications before any commitment.