Loyal utility committee approves holding tank for concession stand

By Valorie Brecht The Loyal School District’s concession stand project is one step closer to being completed. Last week, after some discussion, the City of Loyal’s utility committee approved having a holding tank installed for the concession stand. The full city council will still need to vote on the matter before the school can install a tank.

The concession stand is being built on the south end of the baseball/football field, with the foundation having been laid recently. The plan is for the building to include a plumbed kitchen, along with restrooms.

At the Sept. 4 utility meeting, District Administrator Chris Lindner shared some quotes he had acquired from Ben Suda of Suda Plumbing for different options for plumbing. The estimated cost for labor and materials to install a 2,000-gallon holding tank would be $6,000, while a 5,000-gallon tank would be $11,000. The estimated cost to install a lift station and pump line to the city sewer would be $23,000 for an interior lift station and $30,000 for an exterior lift station.

The utility committee members were inclined to approve a holding tank, purely from a cost perspective. With a holding tank, there would be an additional cost to have someone come and pump out the tank periodically, but it would still be a lot cheaper than installing a lift station, said utility committee member Tim Froeba.

“There’s still a big difference between $6,000 to $23,000,” he said.

The council asked Chris Lindner if the school had a preference.

“We would want the holding tank, because the lift station’s already going to cost you more and then more to maintain it, too,” said Chris Lindner.

Utility committee member Dave Geier asked why the concession stand had been put where it was.

“The idea was so that workers and patrons could watch the game, whether it was football or baseball, at the same time (as they were working or eating their food at picnic tables in front of the concession stand). The dugouts obscure your view. So this was a location that would allow them to watch both sports,” said Lindner.

“Wouldn’t you have taken into consideration that your water is up here and your sewer is down here, so let’s put it 100 yards in this direction? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to maybe centrally locate it so you didn’t have to pull it so far?… There was talk that the old one was going to come down, a year or two years ago, something like that,” said Geier.

“There’s still that talk, but we need to utilize it because it is a storage unit and it is a concession stand as of right now,” said Chris Lindner.

Utility committee member Curtiss Lindner said he wanted to address the “elephant in the room.” He said that it made more sense financially to put the holding tank in, but it left the city in a tough spot.

“The hard part is, the city’s kind of over a barrel here because you came to us a year and a half into the project, and now you’re asking for it. I would love to have these conversations up front because now we’re — excuse me — damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If we deny it, you guys are stuck with a higher bill; we’re stuck with higher taxes. And if we approve it, we’re stuck with precedence and basically being held hostage to a situation we had no control over.

“This isn’t the only situation this has happened. This just came up in another area in town. I really wish that these things that are going to affect the city are being brought up and we’re being brought into it earlier in the process.”

Geier agreed. “We got our backs against the wall here. Holding tanks — quite honestly we’ve got ordinances that state that we can’t have holding tanks in the city of Loyal. And it states right in the ordinance. So if we allow you to… It’s going to open a whole new can of worms, I’m afraid.”

Froeba was also a bit concerned about setting a precedent in other situations where there was no sewer line close by to hook up to. However, in looking at the city’s immediate projects, he didn’t foresee the issue coming up.

“With the City View Estates, we’re going to add sewer as we go. We got it already planned that the new industrial site (on the south end of town) is going to have a central lift station, so we’re covered there,” he said.

“And there’s no more property available on Davel or Industrial for new builds,” added Pieper.

“Just to be clear, I’ll vote for the holding tank too just because I’m not going to go against a common-sense solution to a problem right now, but it’s…” began Curtiss Lindner.

“Could be, (we) could have planned it a different way,” finished Chris Lindner.

Froeba made a motion, seconded by Curtiss Lindner, to approve a 2,000-gallon holding tank, which Suda felt would be sufficient for the school’s needs, and send the recommendation to the council. It was approved unanimously.

The council meeting will take place Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 6:30 p.m. at Loyal City Hall. It is open to the public.