While the issue remains a divisive one among its residents, construction work appears to be imminent on the $1.05 million extension of the city’s water system into Nubour Road.

Wayne Township hosted the last of three public hearings about the project Tuesday evening, with officials providing citizens with updates about its current status, with Supervisor Frank Butts announcing that crews could break ground within the next several weeks.

The township expects to close on loan contracts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development next week, clearing the way for construction to begin.

“We have a completion date of 240 days, which should put us in the middle of next summer to have it completed,” said Tom Deneau with Wightman & Associates, the engineering firm overseeing the project. “It will not take a long time to build it.”

The township board of trustees approved contracts with the two vendors who will be doing the construction, Kalamazoo-based firms L.D. Docsa Associates and Balkema Excavating, during a prior meeting in September. Both firms provided estimates totaling of around $869,000.

“When these bids came in, they were about $55,000 above the projected amount that we had budgeted when the project was first started,” Butts said. “Wightman has worked with the USDA to secure an additional $55,000 in financing to ensure this project could go forward.”

Crews with both companies will extend the existing city waterline from Colby Street to 60 parcels of property in the Nubour Road/Davis Lane area. Property owners in the affected area will have the option of connecting to the system, where they will pay the same utility fees to as city residents. In addition, the area will become a city fire district, meaning crews with the Dowagiac Fire Department will be dispatched to any fire reports at the same time as the township department.

“Once a hydrant in there and the water system is functional, if your insurance company won’t give you a break on your fire insurance you need to find a different insurance company,” Butts said.

This project has been a point of contention between the township, its citizens and the city for nearly two years, since reports emerged that township well water supplies were being contaminated by runoff from a now-defunct city landfill on Nubour. Currently, four residences have water supplies that contain hazardous materials, and their owners are currently receiving bottled water from the city until the waterline is in place.

One of the main complaints that some township residents have voiced is how the township is funding the installation of the line. Federal grants will supply about 45 percent of the cost, with another 15 percent coming from the city; the remaining funding will be drawn from the loan with the USDA, which will be paid off over the next 40 years via a special assessment on property owners in the 60-parcel sector, with the average payment coming out to around $315 a year, Butts said.

“Township residents in this area are basically paying for a water main that the township has got to get out of paying for, for a water district,” said John Vylonis, who owns six parcels of property in the special assessment zone, to Butts during the meeting. “You don’t have a monetary stake in this like we do.”

Butts disagreed with Vylonis’ assertion, though, saying that he and the other members of the township board poured countless hours into the project without any increase in compensation, and the township’s yearly auditing costs will also go up as result of the project.

While the supervisor said he understood the feelings of resentment some may feel toward the city’s contribution to the project, Butts said that current solution was devised in such a way as to reduce the chances of having the assessment area annexed by the city, similar to what happened to property in Burmax Park back in the 80s.

“This city manager and the council at this stage right now have been very good for us to work with,” Butts said. “Based on dealing with past managers, that has not always been the case.”