Happy Fall Everyone! 

            In this month’s message, we will be addressing questions on North Prairie Regional Water District processes and policies.

1. Did You Know? North Prairie Regional Water District was selected 2 Years in a row for Best of Minot Awards Water Utility Companies.  (2021 and 2022) NPRWD is also a part of the 2022 Minot Business Hall of Fame.

2. Question? Why are we paying for a Curb Stop – when we are not utilizing the water?  A user may cancel water service at any time unless you were part of an expansion project, by signing discontinue papers.  Project users’ agreement is a 10-year commitment. NP policy states that if you chose to discontinue service and decide later that you want to reinstate service you must back pay the base rate times how many months you discontinued water or a new user fee which ever is less.  The user fee currently is $2000.00. The base rate currently is $54 or $65.

1. EXAMPLE: If you discontinue in May 2023 and reactivate.

In May of 2027. The calculation would be $65 x 48 months = $3120. In this case the current user fee of $2000 is the lessor of the two and therefore is what you would be charged.

3. Funding? Where does the funding come from for Expansion projects? First, we must determine if a project is viable.

We canvass the area to see who is interested in signing up for rural water. This is called a feasibility study. The cost for this study is currently $75.00 per user. Paid up front at time of signing the feasibility paperwork. Then this information is given to our engineers, and they use this information to

determine if there are enough users to proceed further. Our rule of thumb is $35,000 to $45,000 after grant dollars. The more uses per mile the less the cost per mile is. Once all this has been determined the real work begins, finding the funding to make this affordable for the users and North Prairie.  On an expansion project we need to have 75% grant to achieve this. 

• Grant Funding? How do we obtain grant funding for these projects? 90% of our grant dollars are obtained from the ND Department of Water Resources. These grant dollars come from the Water Resource Trust Fund which is funded by our oil energy sector. 20% of that tax is deposited into that fund and is utilized by Rural Water, Municipal, Irrigation, Snagging and clearing and state water projects like NAWS and Southwest Pipeline Authority, Flood Control.  As you can see there are lots of people competing for these funds.
• Fun Fact? Did you know that NP has received $41,287,087 in Grant dollars to do the Expansion projects to bring people water in the region. That is Huge!!!!

• Invitation for Questions? If you have questions or concerns about our processes or polices the door is always open for your questions. Please reach out to our General Manager or any of your board members.  We strive every day to ensure that North Prairie is not only here for tomorrow, but for future generations.

Your Board of Directors takes their responsibilities to North Prairie Regional Water seriously. 

1. We will continue to promote positive, good, and right business for NPRWD.

5. Our Next Meeting is Thursday, October 12^th at 11:00 am

Bremer Bank is located at 1615 36^th Ave SW Minot ND. Seating is limited.