ARLINGTON — The Arlington City Council voted May 18 to award the Jensen Water Improvement Project to the low-bidder, and to send the Arlington Police Department’s K-9 team to the Snohomish Regional Drug and Gang Task Force for an internship.

Public Works Director Jim Kelly said Carman’s Construction was the lowest qualified bidder at $465,579.18.

Kelly estimated that the replacement of old and failing asbestos concrete pipe water mains in the Jensen-Kona neighborhood, as well as the installation of new fire hydrants and water meters, would start in June and run to about mid-July.

“You said asbestos,” council member Chris Raezer said. “Are these pipes hazardous waste, then?”

“They could be,” Kelly said. “Asbestos was used because it was thought that it would strengthen the pipes. It can’t actually come loose from the pipes while water is in contact with it. If the pipes are removed, they do pose an inhalation risk of asbestosis, but that’s why we’re going to abandon them in the ground.”

Public Safety Director Bruce Stedman explained that Arlington’s K-9 team would intern with the Snohomish task force for 90 days, in exchange for $15,000 that the city would use to buy another drug dog.

Stedman noted the close relationship between what happens in Arlington and the rest of Snohomish County.

“If you make a drug bust in Lynnwood or Stanwood, a lot of those drugs probably would have come into Arlington,” Stedman said.

Stedman praised the K-9, a German Shepherd named “Oso,” for his “incredible sniffing ability,” and promised the council they’d get to see him during the police department’s June 1 badge-pinning ceremony for new officers.