The replacement of the aging water system in the Town of Montross has been something of an ongoing slow burn.

The project, unveiled in January of 2019, originally started to take shape during the latter half of Patricia Lewis’s stint as town manager. From there, easements and surveys were collected, whereupon it was decided which streets would see their old pipes pulled up and replaced.

Phase one seemed to happen in leaps and bounds, but the pace slowed dramatically as the Town worked on getting its ducks in a row for the next step of the operation.

At the Town Council meeting last week, Town Manager Fran Taylor laid out where things stood.

On the Friday before the meeting, six companies presented their bids for the project, which involves replacing the old water pipes on Carver Street, Forest Drive, and the rest of King’s Highway from what was once the Montross Brewery to the west edge of town.

“They’re going to start with the Forest Drive piece in order to be able to use what grant dollars we have left,” explained Taylor. “It has to be a project from start to finish, and it has to be done by August 30th. It was thought that these would be the most feasible portions of the project to get completed on time.”

The pitched price tags ran the gamut, ranging from $640,000 to as much as $3 million. The names of the bidders were not disclosed during the meeting, and it remains to be seen who the contract will be awarded to.

The plan is to partially finance the project with the remaining $468,000 in ARPA funds that were given to the Town to fund the water line replacement. Town Manager Taylor and others will undoubtedly be looking for additional grants before dipping into the water fund.