1. Beginning in April of 2013 the 4 communities of Essexville, Hampton Twp., Portsmouth Twp. and Merritt Twp. began discussions regarding the creation of a partnership that would construct a new water supply line under the Saginaw River from the new Bay Regional Water Treatment Facility scheduled to be on line the fall of 2015.  This partnership would allow a physical separation from the existing providers antiquated supply system and it's prohibitive costs and also provide a more direct route to the end users.

2. Savings are based on the difference between the retail cost of water from the present provider and the wholesale cost to the partners in the consortium.  Presently these costs are estimated to be as high as $956,00/year.

3. The start date of the discussions was October 16, 2013.  In December of 2013 the Engineering data was transferred from Wade Trim Assoc. to Rowe Engineering who is our engineer of record for this project. The spring of 2014 is targeted for a construction start with a completion date by the fall of 2015.

4. Barriers: Legalities involved in creating 4 or 5 agreements between the partners.