By Bonnie Culverhouse
Contractors are working on Clerk Street in Minden to build the city’s new 2-million gallon water tank that’s been in the works since 2009.
Mayor Nick Cox said the bulk of the work on the new tank is planned for the latter part of the year, but dirt work is well under way.
“There’s a lot of fab (fabrication) work off-site that’s being done right now,” Cox said. “So we have time to prepare the site.”
Don M. Barron Contractor Inc. of Farmerville was awarded the contract and they removed the building that was on the property.
“It is all one project,” Public Works Director Tyler Wallace said. “They will construct the tank, too.”
The tank will allow the town to experience continued economic development – especially in the *upper plane (elevation) area.
*Upper plane is partly described as the Homer Road/Germantown Road (business and residential) and the town’s upper elevation properties including Industrial Drive and Minden Recreation Center toward the east.
Bob Myers, the engineer who designed the tank, said in order to grow, there is a need for more water to be pumped to the City’s upper plane.
“This ground storage tank will not only provide additional storage, but it will also provide a two-pump station,” Myers said.
The tank will be made of concrete, and Wallace said the majority of the project will be cast on-site. It will have a steel diaphragm inside the concrete.
“There are only a handful of companies that do this kind of work in the whole country … to do it right,” Cox added.
One is DN Tanks, which is subcontracted by Barron. DN Tanks has a regional office in Dallas, Texas.
Minden’s downtown water tank holds a half million gallons; the new tank will be approximately 40 feet tall and 100 feet across, making it 314 feet in diameter. It will hold four times the water as the in-air tank downtown.
“The City of Minden is supplied by water wells located around the water treatment plant (on the west side of town),” Myers explained. “All the water from the wells is pumped to the plant for treatment and then pumped to the distribution center of the **lower plane with high-service pumps.”
The high-service pumps feed the lower plane and the downtown elevated water tank.
**Lower plane (elevation) runs from downtown Minden toward the west side of town.
“There is currently a pump station at Victory Park that sends the water from the lower elevation to the upper plane and the tank on Germantown Road, which serves as the pressure source for the upper plane.” Myers said.
The downtown storage tank provides the pressure for the lower plane. When a storage tank’s water level lowers to a certain point, a valve is opened to allow more water to flow in.
Myers said there are three pumps at Victory Park that alternate run times with the ability to switch on or off based on demand.
“There is redundancy at Victory Park, so if one pump goes out, there are already pumps available that can handle it,” Myers said. “But it’s always a good idea to have an additional pump station, so all your eggs aren’t in one basket.”
The engineer says water will also be drawn into the new tank from the water treatment plant and pumped to the upper plane from the two-pump building on the Clerk Street property.
The new water tank has been in the works since Bill Robertson was mayor. Cox said the project is at least 16 years old.
Wallace said he believes the project will be completed by spring or summer of 2027.
He explained citizens use around 2 million gallons of water per day, depending on heat.
“If something catastrophic happens, we could last a day with this new tank. If something happened today, we’d last a half a day.”
The project is funded by Facility Planning & Control, the State of Louisiana Division of Administration. It is deemed an economic development project.
The project was quoted at around $3.4M, slightly higher than the City predicted which was around $3.2M. The City of Minden will have to supply around 7.5 percent of that money or $265,420.
The council voted to make the difference through the water fund.
“Other public works projects came in lower than the budget amounts along with other projects which are not going to be completed in this fiscal year,” Cox said. “These unused budget funds in the water fund will be used to cover the cost.”
Wallace said the mayor and council worked very hard to make the water tank dream come true.
“We also really appreciate the help of Sen. Adam Bass and Rep. Wayne McMahen,” he added.
(Editor’s Note: In a capital outlay project or a state grant, funds can only be used on the project for which they were approved. The money first comes from the City’s budget and is reimbursed by the State.)
