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Newton moves ahead with water, sewer project

Council approves $215,000 budget amendment, instructs group to proceed with designing pump station

BY THE NUMBERS

$130 million - Stimulus money awarded North Carolina

$2 million - Cost of improvements identified by McGill Associates

$479,000 - City’s match to a Clean Water Trust Fund grant

$215,000 - Amount taken from city’s General Fund for engineering and project design

$127,500 - Cost of engineering/design work

By Dee Henry | Hickory Daily Record

Published: April 8, 2009

NEWTON - The city is moving ahead with its plans for $2 million in improvements in the water and sewer system despite uncertainty about how they will pay for the work.

The Newton City Council on Tuesday voted through a budget amendment of $215,000 and instruct McGill Associates to proceed with the designing of a new pump station.

The money was taken from the city's general fund and was passed with a resolution of intent to reimburse.

"The engineering cost will be part of the fund request," said Todd Clark, city manager, adding that the application for money to back the funding is through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, "so we will be able to reimburse ourselves. And, if we don't receive stimulus money there's the possibility of money from the Clean Water Trust Fund Grant, but that would delay the project."

Mayor Robert Mullinax reminded other City Council members of the current economic state and how it's affecting grant funds.

"The Clean Water Trust Fund grant program is dead in the water right now," he said of freezes created by Gov. Beverly Perdue's taking $100 million to cover grants given during last fiscal year's cycle. "So now we've gone to Plan B, trying to get stimulus money. If we do not get that, we have a $2 million project we'll have to deal with."

The problem facing the City Council is the problem is one that needs to be fixed whether the money is immediately available or not.

The city's sewer system has experienced four sanitary overflows at the Burris Road Pump Station, planned to be replaced by the new station, in 2007. Those overflows resulted in three notices of violations from the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

For such overflows, municipalities can be fined as much as $25,000 per violation per day. If a municipality has not acted to address problems, it may face civil action from the state.

Councilmember Al Gaither voiced concern about the plan if the station should fail completely.

"We do have a pump to use until the problem is found and corrected," said Wilce Martin, public utilities director. However, that backup would not be a long-term solution, he said.

"This has got to be done. We can't wait until it fails," Gaither said. "I fear there's some chance we won't get this stimulus money, so we need to have a plan ready just in case."

Clark said city staff is working on a backup plan on how to finance the project should the money not come through.

Deadlines for the application for stimulus money means the project must be designed and ready to begin by June 3.

The Burris Road station is one of seven run by the city. It serves the northeast part of the city, as well as receiving some wastewater from the city of Conover.

McGill Associates presented council with the results of a study identifying the problems of the city's water and sewer system during the council's Jan. 6 meeting. During its Feb. 3 meeting, council authorized Clark to enter into an agreement with McGill to provide engineering, design and construction management for the project.