The final piece of financing was approved Tuesday for $57 million in expected improvements to the city's wastewater treatment plant.
The Aberdeen City Council approved a $32,426,100 loan through the state revolving fund during a regular meeting at the Municipal Building. The 30-year loan will be at 2.125% interest, according to City Manager Joe Gaa.
The remainder of the financing is coming from $5 million in city funds and nearly $18.9 million in grant funding. The work has yet to be bid. That's expected to happen in early 2023 with design engineering completed later this year.
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According to the bond resolution, the new debt won't be added to the city's debt limit because it uses revenue from wastewater treatment fees. That means a special rate or surcharge can be adopted by the city to cover the loan payments.
That fee increase hasn't yet been proposed, but the council discussed the potential increase in December. At that time, Ted Dickey, program coordinator for the Northeast Council of Governments, said the projected increase needed if the entire project were covered by a loan was $24.85 for both residential and commercial users. That, he said, would be an unlikely worst-case scenario. The current fee is $27.50.
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Improvements at the plant are expected to expand treatment capacity from 8 million gallons per day to 12 million gallons per day.
Key areas identified for improvements at the water reclamation plant include:
In other action, the council approved a $1.025 million bid from Dahme Construction for sanitary sewer improvements on Roosevelt Street.
Dahme was one of two bids on the last-minute addition to replace 1,500 feet of sewer line this summer. The project came about after a city light pole dropped into the sewer line. Then, once repairs were made, a section of ground collapse was found.
More:Light pole sinks into sanitary sewer resulting in unexpected expense for Aberdeen
Work will involve the replacement of sewer line on South Roosevelt Street from Sixth Avenue Southeast to the lift station near 11th Avenue Southeast. In a phone interview Wednesday, Gaa said while the project was not included in the city's 2022 budget, there are funds to cover it.
The city had three bond payments totaling $1.5 million that were in the budget, but those bonds have since been paid off. Gaa said money set aside for those bond payments will be reassigned for this project.
Work is expected to be done by Sept. 1.