Vicksburg municipal officials last month took a small but necessary step toward an ambitious 2027 project.
During a Sept. 15 meeting, Council members authorized a $70,000 contract with engineering firm Prein&Newhof for work required in advance of a $5.1-million lead-pipe replacement.
Village Manager Jim Mallery said the prep work will include soil testing at more than two dozen locations and an extensive amount of surveying to confirm village right-of-way in the central part of town.
Mallery said the impending water-pipe-replacement project is within a rectangular area bounded by Washington Street to the north, Kalamazoo Avenue to the east, Highway Street to the south and Michigan Avenue to the west. About 170 residences, as well as the Vicksburg Community Schools administration building are included in the area, he noted.
“It has been our goal, like the project we just had this past 10 months north of the middle school, that we place our water mains outside the roadway so, in the future if we have an issue with a water main, we won’t be digging up roads,” Mallery said. The preliminary work “is just establishing the legal boundaries of where our easements are in that geographical area, as well doing the soil testing that needs to be done.”
He said new water pipes are being placed in an area between a street’s sidewalk and its curb.
Mallery said the overall project will also include replacing a sanitary-sewer pipe under Kalamazoo Avenue. He said the clay pipe is more than 100 years old. Twice in the past eight years the village has had to repair due to age-related defects.
With help from U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, the village a few years ago received a commitment of $4.1 million in federal funds to help support the project. Mallery said he is optimistic the $4.1 million – 80 percent of the project’s anticipated cost – will carry over into the federal government’s 2025-26 fiscal year budget, which starts Oct. 1.
The job is set to go out to bid in spring 2027 and will include new pipe hookups from the village’s main line to residential units.
Once completed, the project will bring the total number of new water-line hookups to more than 370 of the village’s 650 residences where replacement is necessary, Mallery said.
Mallery provided a brief update on the village’s recently completed curbside junk pickup. The task was handled by the company College Hunks.
He said the company’s invoice was about $21,000 and crews completed the village-wide pickup in four and a half days.
“That’s general-fund tax dollars we use on that project,” he said. “This was the second year in a row we’ve offered this service after an absence of several years and we’ve already locked them in for a date in 2026, pending approval.”
Vicksburg Village Council will return to its twice-a-month assembly in October. It meets at 7 p.m. the first and third Monday of the month.
