Somerton OKs sewer project to serve west side of city
Council awards $2.2 million contract for work
SOMERTON – A sewer project slated to begin within the month kicks off what city officials say will be a future trend of growth on Somerton’s west side.
The Somerton City Council recently awarded a contract for nearly $2.2 million to Yuma Valley Contractors to build a sewer lift station and install lines serving the area north of Main Street and west of Cesar Chavez Avenue.
The project will be the first infrastructure to serve Parkview Commerce Center, a future high school and a future city park.
With the city’s growth to the east and south constrained by airport noise zones and agricultural land, Somerton officials foresee future residential and commercial development pushing to the west and northwest.
“This is something that (the city has been) working for years, and now it’s something that is real,” Somerton Mayor Gerardo Anaya said as the council awarded the contract. “We have the financing, and construction is going to begin in the next month. This is a project that is going to push commercial development, the high school and a residential area to the north.”
Somerton officials are counting on the Parkview Commerce Center and the future high school to be magnets for future residential and commercial development on the west end.
Parkview would be located on 20 acres owned by the city along Main Street, at the west entrance of Somerton. Just north of that site is a parcel where the Yuma Union High School District plans to build a future high school campus financed with voter-approved bonds.
Next to the high school site is the proposed site of the city park, which would serve as a joint-use facility with athletic
fields for use by residents and students.
The area is already served by water but not sewer service, Anaya said.
Yuma Valley Contractors will build a pump station, install underground lines and pave an access road to the station, Somerton Public Works Director Samuel Palacios said.
The project will be financed
in part a $1.95 million loan from the Arizona Water Infrastructure Authority, of which $500,000 will be forgiven by the state agency. Impact fees charged for new developments in the area will go
toward paying off the loan, Palacios said.
City funds will also be used to finance the project.
Yuma Valley Contractors was the low bidder among three companies that sought the contract.