Meet Dennis Bowman, the new Superintendent of the fledgling Missoula Water Company, formerly the Mountain Water Company.

Bowman said starting last Friday, it was a whole new world.

"It's actually very exciting," Bowman said, who worked for Mountain Water for 35 years. "We've got a lot of great plans and ideas for the future of the water division. It was a great day Friday when we took possession and met with the employees and we worked on a lot of stuff over the weekend, and we opened to the public to serve the community this morning."

First, the basics. To contact the Missoula Water Company, call 552-6700. They're open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday in the same location at 1345 West Broadway. The new email address is watercs@ci.missoula.mt.us. To pay your bill, click here

Bowman said the revenues from the ratepayers will go to improving the infrastructure of the company, from water mains to new fire hydrants.

"I've already got a pretty good budget," he said. "We are going to reinvest the revenue we bring in. Part of the revenue will go to regular maintenance and supplies like chlorine, and power bills. The other part is we'll be doing about $6 million of capital improvements in the first year, and I'm hoping to increase that as we go throughout the next five years. We'll be replacing water mains, installing some new hydrants for now, but in the future we might have to build a new reservoir, but right now, my focus for this next year is to replace as many mains as possible."

The City of Missoula took possession of the water utility at midnight last Friday.

 

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