Rathdrum extends water plan contract

Wednesday night, the Rathdrum City Council voted 3-0 to allow Mayor John Hodgkins to extend the city’s Water Master Plan update contract with J-U-B Engineers through Nov. 30. 

City officials told council that missing historical data and discrepancies between a computer model and real-world testing have delayed completion of the update.

A computer model estimated water levels in Rathdrum’s 1 million-gallon storage tank to be 6 to 8 feet lower than what was actually observed during a hydrant flow test in July 2024. City Administrator Leon Duce explained the significance of that difference.

“It’s a 33-foot storage tank,” Duce said. “Each foot would be equivalent to 30,300 gallons, so that's a lot of water.”

Hydrant flow tests simulate water demand during a fire.

“We were monitoring our water wells to see what they were producing as far as output, and we were monitoring the water tank levels,” Public Works Director Dan Jump said. “When we run that specific data through the computer model, the results do not replicate what we actually observed during that simulated fire event.”

Council members have previously expressed concern that inadequate water flow could hinder firefighters’ ability to battle a major blaze. The discrepancy between the model and real-world test results added to those concerns.

Hodgkins called the contract extension vote “arguably one of the most important topics” to come before the council in a long time. He questioned why a preliminary report expected by Sept. 14 had not been delivered.

Jump said the city’s systems integrator, Bigfoot Technical Services, has been unable to retrieve the historical data needed by J-U-B to complete its analysis. Hodgkins asked why the city should continue to have confidence in Bigfoot given the delays.

“We've worked with this company for upwards of 20-something years,” Jump said. “The confidence level can't be 100% perfect every time, but the responsiveness that we have had from a historical standpoint has indicated that they're reliable and responsive. We depend upon them.”

Councilwoman Laura Fuller voiced concerns about the original extension proposal, which lacked a firm completion date because J-U-B’s 30-day analysis period would not begin until it received the missing data.

“It still doesn’t address the problem of if the data is never retrieved,” Fuller said. “We need some kind of requirement that the actual findings be delivered. I'm not comfortable with this agreement the way it is.”

City Attorney Emily Smith said she would review Bigfoot Technical Services’ contract to determine whether the company is legally obligated to provide the information.

“I don’t know what their contract says, but we can go through Bigfoot's contract,” Smith said. “I can see if they are legally bound to provide us with this data or if we were supposed to already have access to it.”

Council members and city officials ultimately agreed to extend the contract through Nov. 30, with a mandatory progress report due by Nov. 10.

    Rathdrum Councilwoman Laura Fuller asks a question as city officials explained the delay in getting a preliminary report on the city's Master Water Plan update from J-U-B Engineers.