GREEN CHARTER TOWNSHIP – The Green Charter Township Board of Directors approved a proposal from Wade Trim for engineering services for the pump station improvement project during its Aug. 13 meeting.
“The township approved $62,000 for the construction of the pump station,” said Supervisor Jason Kruse. “We would have started this much sooner, but we worked with Gotion’s engineers to see what their projected flow rates would be to see if the pump station could accommodate Gotion’s flow rates so we don’t jump the gun and put the pump station in without considering growth.”
Kruse said there is a lot of public interest in completing the mechanical portion of the lift improvements and that is what the focus is now.
“We’re hopefully ahead of the curve here and prepared,” he said. “We’ve had the assessments done. Now that we know what we want to see in this pumping station and have Gotion’s projected flow numbers, we’ll move into the planning phase to make sure everything is done right.”
Wade Trim will conduct the tender process for the pumping station and the information will be presented to the municipal administration in November or December, Kruse said.
“We understand the process takes a while. These things are built to order, so it takes a while,” he said. “If everything goes right, we can replace it this spring. We want to make sure we get the replacement done in time before something catastrophic happens, which we don’t want.”
In 2021, the community was made aware of problems with the lift station at the corner of 205th Avenue and Ross Parkway. A feasibility study by Fleis and VandenBrink found that while the lift station had been well maintained, many components had reached or exceeded their useful life, the pump station was in poor structural and mechanical condition, and the piping had significant corrosion. It was recommended that the lift station be completely replaced.
Part of the development agreement with Gotion, Inc. for the proposed electric vehicle battery component manufacturing facility in the community included state funds for infrastructure improvements, including roads and sewer systems.
In September, the previous town council signed a Strategic Site Readiness Program Sub-Grant Agreement with Right Place Inc. for potential funding of the township’s wastewater infrastructure improvements required for Gotion Inc.’s planned North American manufacturing facility.
Under the grant agreement between the Michigan Strategic Fund and The Right Place Inc., $3.4 million was allocated to upgrade wastewater infrastructure in Green Charter Township, including replacing the pump station.
“The SSRP grant program allocated $3.6 million to upgrade the pump station and wastewater system,” Kruse said. “Currently, the SSRP grant is tied to the Gotion project and Gotion needs to meet some milestones for the money to be released by the state.”
“I’ll be talking to the state about that money,” he said. “If the money is released and we can use it, maybe in the form of a grant – those discussions are being initiated right now. We’ll know more when we get there.”
Kruse said information on the pumping station assessment would be posted on the municipality’s website by the end of the week.
