While many residents may be unaware, the town of Belt is currently facing challenges in regard to their water system.
On Wednesday night, a meeting was hosted to discuss the issue.
Josh Sommer is a representative for Great West Engineering, who is taking part in this project.
He stated, "The town of Belt’s water system, they have a lot of issues with their distribution mains in particular. Their shallow mains are subject to freezing, and they’ve got a lot of cast iron mains that are also deteriorating."
Cast iron pipe was the original metal pipe used for most urban water main construction up until the 1970s. Cast iron can still be found in the older sections of urban water distribution systems, but for rural communities like Belt, it was mentioned that having the adequate resources is a challenge.
During the meeting, it was mentioned that the town has received grants to move forward with the water project through ARPA Funds.
Here's a summary of the ARPA Funds.
- LFR (Local Fiscal Recovery): $144,284
- Min. Allocation: $113,344
- County Contribution: $500,000
- Competitive Grant: 1,434,372
The total is $2,192,000
Belt ranked 21st out of 30 on the Montana Coal Endowment Program Application, while ranking 18th out of 50 on the Renewable Resource Grant.
"Definitely for a town that's the size of Belt, it's a big step," Sommer said. "I believe they got a little over 2.2 million ARPA Grants to help pay for these water Maintenace placements."
According to the document presented at City Hall, "The county is still working on a subrecipient agreement to make the $500,000 in Cascade County ARPA funds available to the town ... The town will need to issue a letter accepting County ARPA funds."
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