"I'm going to have to correct you on that, Dale, so maybe not a water problem."
Kelly Oelke, Hickman's city administrator, said this on Nebraska Public Media in May 2026, correcting a question about whether the town's rapid growth had created a water problem. Her point matters if you're reading a home inspection report right now that flagged low pressure at a shower or kitchen faucet. The number on that page may reflect a citywide condition rather than a defect in the house.
Hickman's water pressure runs anywhere from 40 to 90 psi depending on where you are in town, according to Oelke. Run a sprinkler and take a shower at the same time on the low end of that range and you'll feel it. That swing isn't a plumbing defect waiting to be found during a walkthrough. It's a citywide condition tied to how fast Hickman has grown and how far the town's water storage and pump infrastructure has had to stretch to keep up.
What the Reading Actually Measures
An inspector's job is to report what the gauge says at the hose bib, not to diagnose why. A reading in the 40s doesn't automatically mean a bad pressure regulator, a corroded line, or anything else that belongs on a repair request. Before treating a low reading as a negotiating point, it's worth asking the city or a neighbor on the same block what pressure they're seeing. If the whole street reads low, the fix isn't inside the house.
This is a different issue than the one that governs whether new lots get released for construction in the first place, which comes down to the capacity of Hickman's wastewater treatment plant. Pressure is a separate system: storage tanks, booster pumps, and the mains that move water from the tower to your tap. A house can sit on a fully approved, fully serviced lot and still read low on pressure, because the constraint isn't whether water can reach the house. It's how much push it has once it gets there.
The Growth Behind the Gauge
Hickman has grown past 3,000 residents and now carries a median home price of $343,000 alongside median household income just over $104,000, figures Oelke described as comparable to Lincoln itself. The town functions as a bedroom community for people weighing Hickman's cost of living against Lincoln's commute, and that math has pulled in developers fast enough that the city has had to run to keep its utilities ahead of rooftops rather than behind them.
The city has already spent to fix part of that gap. In 2025, Hickman put over $1.5 million into doubling the capacity of its water treatment plant and another $4 million into doubling wastewater treatment capacity. Both of those investments solved a throughput problem, meaning how much water the city can treat and move at all. Neither one touches pressure, which is a storage and distribution question, not a treatment one. That distinction is why a buyer can hear "the city just spent millions on water" and still get a 45 psi reading on inspection day.
The Project That's Moving Toward Bidding Right Now
The piece that does address pressure is still under construction, and a second phase just moved forward. As of this spring, Hickman had a booster pump system going in at its existing water tower to push pressure up in the near term. Behind that, the city is now advancing a $3 million reservoir and booster pump project, funded through roughly $1 million in EPA grant money and $2 million in loan financing. The EPA finished its review of the project's front-end bid documents, and the city plans to advertise for bids with an opening scheduled for October 28, 2026, at Hickman City Hall.
The finished project calls for a reservoir holding one to one and a half million gallons, paired with larger mains to carry that water into town. That's the fix that actually changes the number on a pressure gauge, and as of this fall it hasn't gone out to bid yet, which means construction hasn't started.
| Project | Status as of September 2026 | Funding | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water treatment plant expansion | Complete (2025) | $1.5 million | How much water the city can treat, not pressure |
| Wastewater treatment plant expansion | Complete (2025) | $4 million | Handles wastewater volume from new construction |
| Booster pump at current water tower | Under construction | City capital budget | Near-term pressure boost in existing system |
| Reservoir and booster pump project | Bids not yet advertised; opening Oct. 28, 2026 | $3 million ($1M EPA grant, $2M loan) | Long-term storage and pressure fix, adds 1 to 1.5 million gallons |
What This Means If You're Under Contract Right Now
If you're mid-transaction on a Hickman home, three things follow from this timeline. First, a low pressure reading on inspection day is worth a conversation with the city about which zone the house sits in, not an automatic repair credit request aimed at the seller. Second, the fix that actually resolves this citywide hasn't started construction, so don't expect the reservoir project to change anything before your closing date. Third, expect utility costs to keep climbing modestly rather than spiking once. The city raised water and sewer rates by roughly 6 percent and 5 percent respectively starting April 1, 2026, following a third-party cost of service study that found existing rates weren't keeping pace with operating costs and the system upgrades still ahead. That kind of steady increase is the ordinary cost of a town building its way out of a growth bottleneck, not a sign anything is going wrong.
None of this changes what Hickman is: a fast-growing town within easy reach of Lincoln, still working through the infrastructure math that comes with adding rooftops faster than pipes can always keep pace. A pressure reading in the 40s on inspection day may be evidence of that math, but by itself it isn't evidence of a bad house.
If you're reading an inspection report on a Hickman property and trying to figure out what's a real issue and what's just the town catching up with itself, I've walked enough of these deals to tell the difference quickly. Connie Reddish can help you read the report the right way and decide what's actually worth asking for.
