Benton Harbor City Commissioners have approved applications to the Michigan Drinking Water Revolving Fund and the State Revolving Loan Fund for loans to pay for water system and sewer work. After an April 15 public hearing where they learned about the affected areas, which are all over the city, the body met Monday to approve the applications. Commissioner Sharon Henderson noted a failure in the past to maintain infrastructure leaves current leaders with the need to take action.
“Nobody thought up until the last three or four years, ‘Hey, we need to do maintenance on some critical things in the city,’” Henderson said.
The total cost of all the water and sewer projects is about $14.5 million. Mayor Marcus Muhammad said part will have to be covered by the city as it rebuilds itself.
“It’s going to cost to rebuild our infrastructure. It’s going to cost to fix our streets, and I don’t think that we can expect someone from the outside to come in and do for us what we should be able to do for ourselves.”
Commissioner Juanita Henry said she felt the projects should cover more areas of the city, but City Manager Darwin Watson said they were all chosen according to the cost of those old lines failing. Some of the water mains date back more than 80 years. The city will find out in October if it’s been approved for the state loans, and then another vote could be taken before moving forward. If all goes smoothly, work could start in the summer of 2020.
Some of the affected areas include:
Pipestone, Main to Vineyard
Michigan Street, Wall Street, and Highland Avenue from the west end to Jefferson
Vineyard Avenue, Pipestone to the east end
Maple Street, Pipestone to Cedar
Highland, Hull to Fair
Benton, Highland to Territorial
Stevens, Wakounda to Riverside
At the water treatment plant.
