CITY, SCHOOL TO MEET ABOUT WATER

~Correction: Hillary Schmittzehe is a man, not a woman, as this story assumes.

Officials from Notre Dame High School and the city of Cape Girardeau will meet Monday to try to work out an agreement for extending city water service to the new high school.

Hillary Schmittzehe, chairman of Notre Dame's building committee, said the committee met Thursday night and "decided to work with the city."

"We came up with a proposal that I think will be suitable to both the city and Notre Dame," Schmittzehe said.

Notre Dame's new high school is now under construction on Route K, two miles west of the city limits.

School officials had hoped to have water service by November, but that deadline will not be met.

In July, it was discovered that the city had never received an application for water service from school officials.

The school essentially had four options, Schmittzehe said: drilling its own well, hooking into a nearby subdivision's water supply, applying for service from a rural water district or getting city water.

The new school, located in unincorporated Cape Girardeau County, is not served by a water district.

The agreement to work with the city of Cape Girardeau was "the top vote-getter" of committee members, Schmittzehe said.

"We'd like to go with the city water," she said. "It would allow us fire protection."

City engineer Mark Lester said a design has already been drawn up and evaluated for extending water service to the new high school.

The design calls for running a 14-inch water main out Route K to the school, with an 8-inch water line service to the school building.

The city is working on extending water and sewer lines to Twin Lakes subdivision, which is located north of the new high school but inside city limits.

The Notre Dame line, if approved, would be separate from the Twin Lakes service, Lester said.

It's too soon to estimate when construction of the water line might start, Lester said.

"They would like to start immediately, and we would need to get state DNR (Department of Natural Resources) approval, and of course, that's after we approve the project," he said.

Lester estimated it would take 120 days to complete the project, "and that's probably being pretty conservative, to be honest."

Lester could not give a cost estimate for the new water line.

In July, City Manager Michael Miller said the line would cost about $600,000, with the city picking up about a third of the cost.

Normally, Miller said in July, a contractor will build the line after city staff designs it, and the city will supply certain sections.

He said at the time that extending water service to that area would be beneficial to the city, since the area does not have adequate water supply to support potential development.

While officials on both sides try to work out an agreement, the new school site still needs water, Schmittzehe said.

"What we'll do is we'll take a water tank out there and just store the water. It'll have to be trucked in until we can get the water line," she said. "The faster and quicker we get it, the better it'll be for the project."

The new high school is scheduled to open in September 1998. City and school officials have been discussing the water supply since 1995.