Help on way for senior facility

WINCHESTER — Work on a booster station that will help increase water pressure for an under-construction retirement community, along with current and future businesses, is nearing completion.

Greenway Engineering Inc., a Winchester-based firm, has been overseeing the booster station project.

“It’s almost finished. Everything’s in the ground and they’re just getting the electrical components together,” said Randy Kepler, an engineer with the firm, in a phone interview.

He added that it shouldn’t be more than a few weeks before the booster station is complete.

One of the primary areas to which the station will boost water pressure is the 132-acre, $110 million Village at Orchard Ridge continuous care retirement community, located near Winchester Medical Center. The community is a National Lutheran Communities and Services (NLCS) facility.

Courtney Malengo, director of public relations for NLCS, said in a phone interview late last week that the booster station was needed to help the senior living facility meet various health and safety requirement.

Construction of the facility’s initial phase — which includes 127 apartments and 51 cottages — is scheduled for completion early next year, with the first residents scheduled to move in during February.

Malengo said whether or not the company adds to the community will depend on the demand from potential residents.

The booster station will not have a water storage tank at its location near Walmart SuperCenter on Northwestern Pike (U.S. 50). Instead, the water will come from an existing distribution system about one mile north of the booster, Kepler said.

The station was approved by the Frederick County Sanitation Authority (FCSA) earlier this year after plans for a 1.5-million-gallon, 6,000-ton water tank fell through. The land the tank would have been placed on could not have supported the weight, prompting the switch to the plan for a mostly underground pumping system, according to a previous report in the Winchester Star.

The booster station is a more economic option than the tank and booster combination that was previously considered, Kepler said, costing several hundred thousand dollars compared to more than $1 million for the other project.

The station will have three pumps to boost water pressure to the areas it will serve. There will be two smaller pumps for low-flow situations, or typical daily water flow situations, that will cycle between each other to reduce wear and tear, Kepler said.

The third pump will be larger to account for higher water flow and peak demands.

“There’s always daily use variations throughout the day, like taking showers in morning and doing laundry in the evening,” Kepler said, adding that higher water flows could result from anything and can occur anytime there’s more demand coming from the areas served by the station.

Uwe Weindel, the FCSA’s engineer and director, said that the authority has been monitoring work on the booster station and that it has met all necessary standards.

— Contact Matt Armstrong at marmstrong@winchesterstar.com