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Aitkin city highlights $500,000 I triple r award and $2.32M EPA grant for wastewater and water tower work
Summary
City Administrator Jen Thompson told 'Coffee with the County' the city has secured $500,000 from the "I triple r" program toward a roughly $6 million wastewater upgrade and a $2,320,000 federal EPA grant to support a new water tower project, with painting and demolition work scheduled over the next year.
Aitkin city leaders said this week the city has won targeted grant awards to begin long‑deferred water and wastewater upgrades. City Administrator Jen Thompson said the city was awarded $500,000 through the I triple r program toward a roughly $6,000,000 wastewater treatment project and separately received a $2,320,000 federal EPA grant to support water tower work.
"We did recently get awarded, $500,000 from the I triple r to support that project," Thompson said on Coffee with the County, describing the wastewater work as a multi‑phase effort the city has postponed for nearly a decade. She said the wastewater project will proceed in phased work and that more funding will be needed for later phases.
Thompson also outlined plans for a newly installed water tower. "The water tower is waiting to be painted. They were hoping to do that this fall, but weather got cold. So that'll be painted in the spring," she said, adding that the older water tower next to the public utilities office is scheduled to be demolished next summer. "We did receive a $2,320,000 federal EPA grant for that project," she said.
City officials framed the awards as part of a broader push to secure outside funding for infrastructure. Thompson said staff have been "tracking down dollars that support our community" and called grant work time‑consuming: "They are complicated to apply for. They're complicated once you get them. Then you have to actually administer them."
The city did not provide a detailed schedule for construction or a complete funding breakdown for all project phases on the program; Thompson said the work is split into at least two phases and more will follow. The host noted a 3.6% population increase in the county since 2020, which Thompson cited as part of the rationale for updating systems that have been deferred for years.
Next steps reported on the program include planning and administration by city staff and coordination with the council; no formal votes or contract awards were recorded on the program in the episode.
