Graham schedules special meeting after town hall as officials weigh alternate water sources

City of Graham officials announced a special-call meeting on water after a Dec. 3 town hall, saying the city needs to review alternate sources and long-term plans as the town grows.

City manager Eric Garrity and resident speakers flagged water as a top priority for the community. Don Graham, a resident who spoke during the town hall, noted that water has been a recurring concern and urged the city to plan while lake levels remain high. Garrity said staff will analyze options including contracted supplies and the cost of piping water to the treatment plant and invited the public to stay for a special-call meeting immediately after the town hall.

At the meeting, staff described recent tests of the city’s wells. “We ran some tests last summer on the water wells, and we were averaging 475,000 gallons a day out of those wells,” one staff member said. Officials also discussed treatment-plant throughput: “Probably 3.5 to 4 mtd,” a participant said when asked about plant capacity. City leaders cautioned that current lake fullness does not eliminate the need for contingency planning and noted that other large users (such as Fort Belknap) share regional supplies and trigger restrictions when levels fall.

The next step announced at the town hall was the special-call meeting to review cost estimates, capacity testing and options for bringing alternate sources online. City officials asked for county and state cooperation on line routing and funding if the city decides to pursue a piped solution.

The special-call meeting will convene the council to explore costs, capacity projections and timelines; officials said no formal procurement decision was made at the town hall.