Hamilton talks projects 2025-2026

by John Dowd

At last week’s Hamilton City Council meeting, most of the meeting revolved around housekeeping and a report given by the Hamilton City Public Works Director, Donny Ramer. The report included a presentation covering the projects over the last year, and looked at projects going into Hamilton’s near future over the course of 2026.

With numerous projects to cover, Ramer broke the presentation down into categories. The first was development, where Ramer spoke on how, over the last year, Hamilton added numerous multi-family units in various locations around town. He said they were surprised when the number of multi-family units added was significantly higher than any other form of dwelling, including added single-family units and town homes. 

Ramer then spoke on water related projects, saying most of Hamilton’s water meters were put in around 2001 and are reaching the end of their lifespans. This would put Hamilton on track with a 20-year replacement schedule. Hamilton City Public Works will slowly cycle these old meters out for new meters. So far, over the last year, they have replaced about 5%, or around 122 meters.

They also detected and repaired 21 leaks. Ramer described the process as a “whack-a-mole” endeavor, with new leaks seemingly popping up just as they fix others.

For wastewater projects, Ramer said they finished the ARPA-funded improvement project to line the sewer main on Madison Street, which was having some tree root incursions. According to Ramer, the process was quite a project, and it was interesting how they were able to line the main. However, they should not have much trouble now moving forward as the lining was pretty substantial. 

As for the treatment plant, Ramer said they upgraded the 1980s equipment and he foresees better and more efficient treatment into the summer. They added a new generator there, as the old one would have difficulty running the whole facility. Ramer explained that, during one of the last wind storm events, the main breaker melted because it had to run constantly.

Regarding street projects, Ramer said signs, sidewalk repair, storm drains and storm cleanup have been constant projects this year. This will be a constant effort into the future, but they are now getting to “all the things not gotten to in the past.” He attributed this to the street department having a larger team of employees, which they have not had in a while. 

Looking towards the future, Ramer said they are going to be working on Marcus Street in the summer. They also plan to address water supply and storage, which has been a concern. They plan to address the storage with a second tank for redundancy and additional storage.