Council approves $400,000 design task order for Fountain Reservoir using El Paso County ARPA funds

The Fountain City Council voted to approve Resolution 25-3 on Jan. 14, awarding task order number 3 under the professional services agreement with Respec Company to advance preliminary dam and reservoir design for the Fountain Reservoir project.

City project manager Mr. Murphy said the $400,000 task order will focus on designing the southern wall stabilization, lining the reservoir to limit seepage, and a state-compliant spillway. Murphy summarized the project as using the city’s legally owned Fountain Creek water rights, pumping raw water to a reclaimed gravel pit on city property, storing and treating the water there, and delivering treated water to customers. "This task order is dated December of 2024," Murphy said, and it will help finalize the storage design needed for permitting and grant competitiveness.

Council was told the work is fully funded by an El Paso County allocation of federal ARPA funds: the county awarded $2,100,000 for the project; the city had already expended about $700,000 on prior design and permitting work and the new task order will obligate the remaining grant funds. Murphy said the ARPA funds had to be obligated by Dec. 31, 2024 and expended by mid-2026; the task order simply formalizes the expenditure and does not increase costs to current Fountain ratepayers.

Residents asked technical questions during the public comment period. Connie Weisenhunt asked whether the reservoir would be for Fountain’s use only and whether it would be recreational; Murphy said Fountain would be the primary user and that recreation was not intended, noting the site’s remoteness and the risks of water quality contamination. A question about evaporation controls yielded a staff response that the design team is evaluating mitigation options: "Evaporation is a large loss of water at all storage bodies in the state," Murphy said, and designers will weigh cost, operational impacts and other trade-offs.

At the end of the discussion Council Member Estes moved to approve Resolution 25-3 and Council Member Hinton seconded. The motion passed on a recorded "6 yes" vote. The task order identifies Respec (formerly JDS Hydro) as the consultant and is described in staff materials as the third major task order on the Fountain Reservoir project.

Staff said the design work funded by this task order will not by itself produce shovel-ready construction plans, but will provide the technical and permitting detail needed to pursue additional funding and to demonstrate project viability to potential partners and funders.