MIDDLEPORT — Improvements to Middleport’s water wellfield and the installation of a new water distribution system are to be completed in May and September, 2010 respectively.

Because those projects are funded through the federal economic stimulus program, they must have been “shovel ready” at the time they were funded, and must be completed within 560 days. Faymon Roberts, the village administrator who is overseeing the two projects on behalf of the village, provided village council with a construction schedule and timeline, outlining how long the work will take and when contractors will be paid for their work as it progresses.

Work officially began on both the wellfield development and the waterline distribution system on Nov. 11.

The drilling of the village’s new water well near the marina area has been completed, and Mayor Michael Gerlach said last week it was effectively producing water and sampling was underway. The new well is expected to produce around 400 gallons of drinking water per minute once it is completed, and Gerlach said earlier this month it will likely be put to work as soon as samples are considered safe for consumption.

The half million-dollar wellfield improvement project also calls for abandonment of a well drilled several years ago but rejected and never used because it was in the flood plain. The project is the result of federal stimulus funding distributed through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Downing Construction Co. is the contractor on the $428,000 project. Funding for that project will also be used to abandon a well the village drilled several years ago, but never used.

The project is to be “substantially completed” by May 10, and entirely finished by early June.

Work has also begun on a $2.3 million water distribution system, replacing nearly five miles of water lines in the village, along with 70 water valves. Fields Excavating crews are now working on that project, which will be substantially completed by Aug. 9 and completed no later than Sept. 7.

That project received direct funding through the federal stimulus program, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Roberts oversees the work on the project on behalf of the village, and will be meeting monthly with contractors, Gerlach and Fiscal Officer Susan Baker.

The village also received funding for the installation of a new solar-powered sewer lagoon project, but it is on a separate time schedule and was funded from a different source of stimulus funding.