By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
RUSSELL — The Russell City Council unanimously approved a motion to sign of letter of intent with the city of Hays to development the R9 Ranch as long-term water source, according to Mayor Curt Meder.
The action was taken in a special meeting Friday afternoon.
“If Hays wants to take that on that initiative, I think we should give them our full support,” Meder told Hays Post Monday. “But we have to realize that while we we are doing this, it is going to be a long-term project, so we also have to be developing other projects and other water sources and build redundancy.”
Meder said the city of Russell, which has banned all outside watering, is looking at “half a dozen” short-term solutions for water shortages in Russell.
“We are all against the same fence and to me, the best way to approach it is to work together as a team regionally,” Meder said. “We can accomplish a lot more together than we can individually.”
Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty approached the Russell City Council last week asking commissioners to sign the letter of support — what he called an “important” step in the lengthy and expensive regulatory process. The city of Russell owns 18 percent of the ranch, located in Edwards County.
Dougherty has assured the council it would be the city of Hays taking the monetary risk throughout the lengthy regulatory process.
Cost estimates for the project are approximately $65 million, and Dougherty has said the regulatory approval process could take between five and 15 years. A portion of the funding already has been placed in reserves, the result of special sales tax dedicated to fund water projects has been collected since 1992. Through the years, a reserve of approximately $27 million has been built up in the water project fund.