The funding approved by the commission also includes $8.5 million allocated to improve the municipal water system with replacement of water lines and upgrades to the water treatment plant and municipal sewer system facilities.
Mayor Rob Rue offered a simplified explanation of the investment goal: “This helps us have flow in and out of the city.”
A longer version: the work will include replacing a primary effluent pump and substation, post aeration gates and sludge pumps, installing combined sewer overflow mitigation and inflow/infiltration elimination projects and purchasing real estate as needed to achieve the upgrades.
Asked to explain the funding, City Finance Director Katie Eviston noted this is the fourth year the city has issued notes for such projects.
“We are not adding any additional debt. The $8.5 million is for water and sewer capital projects we have financed through notes over the past four years. That includes items like the Yellow Springs Street Phase 1 water and sewer infrastructure, multiple years of sewer linings and the primary effluent pump at the wastewater treatment plant,” Eviston said.
By financing this way, the city does not pay up front for large capital projects, she said, “so that we can minimize the impact to our to rate payers. So when we issue a bond on this next year, that repayment will be stretched over a period of 15 to 30 years to minimize the impact.”
City Commissioner David Estrop likened the financing of such capital improvements to the way homeowners pay for purchasing a house by paying for it over time.
An additional $1.9 million in expenditures will finance the costs of an Advanced Metering Infrastructure project and increase the contract with Ferguson Waterworks for the replacement of water meters throughout the city.
City Services Director Chris Moore indicated most of the city’s water meters were installed between 1994 and 1996 and have exceeded the anticipated lifespan.
“We’ve been seeing a failure rate of about 30 per week. With approval, we will put in place a process of replacing about 4,500 water meters per year and get the backbone infrastructure in place for those meters to be read remotely from towers.”
Asked by Rue if this option is the best savings for customers and taxpayers, Moore responded the contract was competitively bid and the prices were favorable.
New utility billing services software is being purchased at a cost of $1.1 million that will enable city residents to track their water use of an app or website, compare water use, receive consumption alerts and have different methods of payment.
“One of our hopes is to be able to alert customers of leaks,” said Eviston.
She added city staffers are also exploring opportunities to extend additional payment options to customers.
“We still have our utility billing department at city hall that is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the drop box outside city hall. We are exploring the option of kiosks that we will have located in the parking garage and possibly partner with a grocery store so that customers can make their payments there as well,” Eviston said.
A change order was also approved for work already underway for the Primary Effluent Pumps Replacement and Electrical Upgrades project. Moore explained the importance of the $7.7 million project.
“As all the wastewater flows into the plant, these are the pumps that pump every bit of wastewater through the wastewater treatment process,” he said.
About the Author