It appears Oxford Township’s water system will undergo an expansion this year so as to improve its ability to serve customers and supply a proposed residential development.

At the Jan. 30 meeting of the township water and sewer committee, most of the discussion centered around extending a water main measuring 16-inches in diameter from the middle school southward to the proposed site of Tullamore Estates on E. Drahner Rd.

Tullamore Estates is a proposed site condominium development that would consist of 52 single-family detached units to be built on 30-plus acres on the south side of E. Drahner Rd. The property is bordered by the Crossroads for Youth campus to the east and Oxford Hills golf course to the west and south.

“We’d like to start that (project) this summer,” said Thomas A. Turnbull, vice president of the Detroit-based Soave Real Estate Group.

Turnbull represented Tullamore Estates at the meeting along with Bob Tedesco, owner of the Rochester-based Silverado Custom Homes.

“We’d like to start (building on the south side), see how that goes, then see about the north side,” Turnbull said.

Tullamore’s property on the north side is approximately 80 acres.

To move forward with developing the south side, Tullamore Estates must receive preliminary and final site plan approvals from the planning commission and township board.

Tedesco said their goal is to be on the March 28 planning commission agenda.

In order for the proposed development to be supplied with township water, Tullamore Estates must pay a $6,075-per-unit tap fee to connect to the system. With 52 units, the total cost is $315,900.

Turnbull told officials they’re willing to pay the entire bill up-front instead of doing it piecemeal.

“We’ll pay for all 52 (taps) once the water’s delivered,” he said.

But township Supervisor Bill Dunn, who serves on the committee with Clerk Curtis Wright and Trustee Jack Curtis, suggested Tullamore pay “around $50,000” now to cover the cost of engineering and the permitting process for the water main extension.

Curtis recommended Tullamore purchase a specific number of new connections up-front rather than just pay an arbitrary dollar amount. It was proposed they prepay the tap fees for eight units, a total of $48,600. That way, Curtis explained, they would own eight future connections while the township would have money to start work on the main extension.

“We’re not going to take your money for nothing,” Curtis said. “You’re going to get something in return.”

Wright proposed an agreement be drawn up and put in place to protect both Tullamore Estates and the township.

Curtis thought that was a good idea.

“You don’t want to just spend $50,000 in this township and have nothing in your hand,” he told Turnbull and Tedesco. “We don’t want to spend $50,000 and have you walk away.”

Based on the discussion, the agreement would have Tullamore Estates pay for eight connections now and the remaining 44 once the site has access to township water.

Township Engineer Jim Sharpe, who was also present at the committee meeting, was asked if the extension could be designed and built this year.

“It would be a big push, but we can do it,” he said.

Sharpe estimated the Tullamore Estates site could have access to water by the end of August.

Extending the water main won’t be cheap. The average cost for 16-inch pipe is approximately $200 per linear foot, according to Sharpe. It will take approximately 3,200 feet of it to connect the middle school to E. Drahner Rd., plus another few hundred feet to reach the Tullamore site.

Tullamore’s $315,900 in tap fees won’t cover the total cost, so the township will use money from its water fund to make up difference.

The township doesn’t mind expending money for this project because it’s part of a larger plan officials have to loop the water system in that area by running a new main along E. Drahner Rd. and connecting it to an existing main on M-24.

“It needs to be done. It’s an important loop,” Sharpe said.

Having a looped system, as opposed to one with mains that dead-end, enables water to flow in more than one direction, which means users can still have access to it in the event of line breaks or repairs.

“Our primary goal is to loop the system,” Curtis said.

To extend a water main from the middle school southward, the township will have to cross Crossroads for Youth’s property, which means obtaining easements from the nonprofit treatment agency that serves at-risk young people.

Sharpe doesn’t foresee this being a problem.

“I think they’re going to be cooperative,” he said.

Water issues aside, Dunn asked if Tullamore Estates would be willing to make E. Drahner Rd. “more desirable” by helping pay for improvements, including resurfacing it with a fresh coat of gravel and constructing “proper ditching” to prevent stormwater runoff from collecting on the road and eroding it.

“I’m talking about a few thousand dollars,” Dunn said.

“Yes, I would entertain that,” Turnbull replied.

Improving E. Drahner Rd., in Curtis’ opinion, would make the future lots in Tullamore Estates “more valuable” and “accessible.”

Dunn agreed.

“You let that road go and you’re going to have a harder time selling those lots,” he said. “That road is miserable.”