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Resident asks Bicknell council to consider extending town water west of the lodge
Summary
At the April 3 Bicknell Town Council meeting, resident Dave Van Dyke asked the town to consider upsizing a water main to provide culinary service to properties about 1.5 miles past the lodge, saying he would fund feasibility work if the town is willing to consider the request.
Dave Van Dyke asked the Bicknell Town Council on April 3 to consider extending municipal water service to parcels west of the lodge by upsizing an existing line to 8 inches and running it roughly 1.5 miles to reach the properties. Van Dyke said he would pay for initial engineering and feasibility work but wanted clarity first on whether the town would entertain connecting those lots to town water. "If the town said, 'yeah, we'll do it,' we'll provide the things," Van Dyke said, offering to fund studies to show feasibility.
Council members and staff described technical and institutional constraints. Town staff said the local Bicknell Bottoms line is 4 inches and historical minutes show 12 connections originally sold, with one subsequent addition for a total of 13; town engineers recently concluded the line could accept roughly 13 additional service connections only if upsized, but the current system does not meet required fire-flow standards. "Right now, even as it is today, it does not meet fire flow," a staff member said during the discussion.
Speakers raised alternatives and costs. Van Dyke noted he had drilled a private well and obtained preliminary information on tank sizing; the council discussed that building new long mains and storage could cost in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars depending on required tanks, pumps, and pipe. Members also discussed governance issues (whether the town would accept ownership and maintenance responsibility or sell water wholesale to a local water company) and regulatory approvals that would be required, including review by the county fire marshal and the state Division of Drinking Water.
Council did not adopt a policy at the meeting. The chair said staff would refer the request to town engineers for a formal assessment. "I will turn that over to our engineers and see what they come up with," the chair said, directing staff to return with analysis on capacity, cost, and conditions under which the town might accept new mains or additional connections.
Next steps: the council asked staff to have engineers evaluate whether upsizing to an 8-inch main and adding connections would be feasible, to estimate costs and identify regulatory steps for fire flow and chlorination. No formal motion to commit town funds or ownership was taken at the meeting.
