OWENSVILLE —Public Works Director Jeff Fahrenholtz reported to the Owensville Board of Aldermen on Monday that the city’s water supply service line inventory is complete.

The project was funded in full by a grant provided by the Department of Natural Resources in the amount of $451,000 paid to All Clear Pumping & Sewer to inventory the city’s service lines for lead, galvanized or unknown materials.

At first, a total of 12 residences were identified as having galvanized or unknown pipe and after further review, the list narrowed to four. Those homeowners will be notified accordingly.

During this week’s city meeting, the board discussed options for moving forward with the next steps of rectifying the issue. While homeowners are not required to update their service lines past a certain point, the city is considering ways they may be able to help citizens who want to update their lines with a potential grant or another solution. However, the grant process may be too cumbersome to attempt.

“They may give us a grant,” Fahrenholtz told the board. “Maybe too many hoops to jump through to fool with for this small amount.”

City Clerk Peggy Farrell told The Republican Tuesday that the issue with grants is there is often a lot of additional work needed to secure funding that would not be needed if the city were to look into alternative ways to assist — such as the need for an environmental study and engineering involvement. The next grant would also not be available until 2027.

“We could have $1,000 on our side and have another $500 to $1,000 on the house side and be done with it. Four or five houses — it’s not worth that aggravation,” Fahrenholtz said.

City officials plan to revisit the discussion in the future as they evaluate the most practical and cost-effective path forward.