{"id":37741,"date":"2026-07-13T13:55:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=37741"},"modified":"2026-07-13T13:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:55:07","slug":"lead-lines-project-start-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/13\/lead-lines-project-start-uncertain\/","title":{"rendered":"Lead-lines project start uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major water project scheduled for Decatur isn’t likely to get underway before the end of July or perhaps early August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Adams, project manager with Commonwealth Engineering of Fort Wayne, told city council at its latest meeting that he hasn’t \u201cgotten a feel for that yet,\u201d referring to a start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He noted, however, that a pre-construction meeting is scheduled for July 21 \u201cand at that time we will ask for schedules and all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federally-mandated project, funded through 35-year bonds, will replace over 1,000 lead service lines in the city along with numerous water mains, some of which are 100 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The project is expected continue for a year or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RETURN LETTERS: Due to a reworked financial package which will fund the project, more city homes with possible lead service lines have been added to the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 800 owners have received letters noting their addition to the program and that they are being added to the homes which will be checked for possible lead service lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The home owners are encouraged to read the letters, decide whether or not they wish to give approval to have their lines checked, and return them as soon as possible. (Return destinations are listed in the letters.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PACTS APPROVED: At the same meeting, council gave final approval to contracts with four companies who will do the project:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VTF Excavation, Celina, Ohio, $2,615,839.20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yarberry Companies, Anderson, $3,272,890.00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S&S Directional Boring, Bryan, Ohio, $3,390,000.00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watson Excavating, Redkey, $7,185,925.00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four total $17,189,529.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, a total of 19 bids were received for the four phases. The four selected were the lowest bids in that particular phase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com The major water project scheduled for Decatur isn’t likely to get underway before the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-37741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Water-main-work.jpg?fit=540%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37742,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37741\/revisions\/37742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}