The home at 509 Birch Street is long vacant, and crews have been searching for weeks for a way to drill a viable and sustainable well on the property. At the June 10 City Council meeting, city planners asked for a bid for a company to establish a screened test well on the site. A screened test well helps protect the well from sand and other sediment from coming in the same perforations as the intended ground water.
“We originally started a typical bedrock test well,” Community Development Director Michael Grochala told the councilmembers. “We hit some bad geology and has to pull back out of that hole. It was recommended to do a screened test well that will support and maintain the shaft as we continue to drill and seek test results.
The council awarded the bid of more than $74,000 to Traut Companies, which has had crews on-site digging since the ground thawed several weeks ago.
