Agenda - 05-20-2003-10a - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 appropriated $156,000 in fund balance from the County's General Fund to underwrite the anticipated costs of the grant program. Financial Update In addition to the original major construction project of a water distribution system which can serve the entire Rogers Road community, the grant program itself to date has provided potable water service to 25 existing low income homes /families and will provide potable water service in the next few weeks to two additional low income families, a church and the church parsonage. The grant program costs to date may be broken down as follows: OWASA meter and connection /availability fees $28,002 (for 29 units) Plumbing connection costs $24,250 (for 25 units) Pending plumbing connection costs $ 3,880 (for 4 units) Total estimated cost for 29 customer units thus far $ 56,132 Technical Issues There have been a few technical glitches involved in installing the services for individual customers. The most significant have involved requirements of the NC Plumbing Code. Specifically, the Code requires that all new waterline services include: 1. A thermal expansion pressure release (to insure that hot water heaters do not cause an internal plumbing pressure that exceeds the pressure capacity of a building's plumbing); 2. A shutoff valve located inside (or in crawlspace) or outside of the building near where the outside waterline goes under or into the building (to isolate the building from the water distribution network in the event of a plumbing leak); and 3. A pressure- reducing valve that can adjust the water pressure coming to or into a building (to insure that system pressure is not so great as to overcome the pressure capacity of an existing and potentially non -code internal plumbing system). Because the County's grant program does not include costs for improvements of any building's internal plumbing system, there was a need to determine how to meet the Code requirements without major improvements to the internal plumbing system. In the end, the thermal expansion pressure release situation was overcome in each building by replacing an existing ball cock valve in the water closet portion of one toilet in each with a ball cock valve having an integral thermal expansion release (at a cost of approximately $50 and thirty minutes each). The shutoff valve and pressure- reducing valve were both installed in a shallow vault (covered water meter box) located at the point where the existing well water line goes under each building and where the new water service was connected to the existing plumbing system. The cost of the materials and installation of the box, shutoff valve and pressure - reducing valve was about $250 per building. In no case was the internal plumbing system of any building modified. The