DILLON - The City of Dillon was the first in Montana to receive a federal infrastructure grant of almost $2 million.
Gov. Greg Gianforte delivered the check personally Monday afternoon saying this water and sewer project was long overdue.
“Some of the water mains are over 100 years old. They needed to be replaced. That’s what this money’s going to do,” said Gianforte.
The money is part of funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) adopted in March.
Dillon Mayor John McGinley said this is a good start on his first day on the job.
“I’ve been on the job six hours and 17 minutes now, so a lot of this, I was on the city council, so I understand some of it,” said McGinley.
The mayor knows the water mains to the city were considered nearly obsolete when the system was inspected back in 2014.
“And they said you had about 10 years before we had a catastrophic event,” McGinley said.
The project will involve tearing up a whole section of Idaho Street.
It's a temporary inconvenience since it’s in the heart of Dillon’s business district, but officials say this infrastructure will last for more than a century.
“We’re going to be for the next 100 years, we know we’ll have water to Dillon as long as our wells stay, but will have the transmission lines, you know, to Dillon,” said McGinley.
