By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
It may not be popular and it may not sit right with some but water rates in Bucyrus will be going up. That was the information that came out of Monday night’s joint Service and Finance committees’ meeting concerning the new water treatment plant.
Gary Williams of Jones & Henry Engineers, Ltd., the city’s chosen engineering firm for the plant, walked those in attendance through the steps that led the city to its current position. The proposed project will cost the city an estimated $26,729,000. With an Ohio EPA-required contingency, the total cost of the construction and design would be an estimated $28,065,500.
That price has been reduced from its original 2012 estimation of $31,500,000. That amount was estimated without the Ohio EPA contingency added.
The proposed water rates were discussed at a March 6 meeting. Though various options were debated, the best scenario for the city came at an increase of $1.73 for the first 1,000 cubic feet in the second half of 2014 and in 2015, 2016, and 2017. There will be an estimated increase of $0.82 for the first 1,000 cubic feet for 2018.
According to the current and projected water rates per 100 cubic feet, someone currently paying $4.98 for the first 1,000 cubic feet would see their water rate increase to $6.71 on July 1, 2014. For every additional 1,000 cubic feet, an individual would need to add $1.73.
As Williams walked those in attendance through the revenue from water rates and the subsequent expenses, he said the level increase in rates was something they needed to plan for.
The current and projected water rates under the proposed plan can be found below.
The new plant will be constructed on Beechgrove Road on city-owned property. The plant will use a lime softening treatment, such as is used at the current plant. It was determined by the City of Bucyrus New Water Treatment Plant Selection Committee that a membrane treatment, like what was installed in Upper Sandusky, would be too costly to operate and left the question of what to do with the waste.
Williams noted that with a lime softening system, farmers can take the sludge from the lime lagoons if they are maintained yearly. The lime sludge lagoons will be located behind the new site.
The plant will be a steel, T-shaped building. The processing area will be constructed in a warehouse-style while the administration area will have a brick veneer.
The Ohio EPA has forced the plant to be built with less capacity than the current water treatment plant located just off Lane Street.
The new water treatment plant will be funded by an Ohio EPA Water Supply Revolving Loan Account (WSRLA) at a rate of 2 percent over 20 years and an Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA) loan at a current rate of 4.16 percent over 30 years. The maximum amount of $25 million has been requested from the WSRLA loan while the OWDA loan totals an estimated $3,977,905.
“We’re not getting grants,” Mayor Roger Moore stressed at the meeting. “This is low-interest money.”
Williams said true grants for water treatment plants were hard to come by.
“This is the basic minimum to build a plant and operate a plant,” Moore said about the plans.
Water Treatment Superintendent Don Fox gave a short presentation earlier in the meeting about the issues the current plant suffers. He commented direly that there was no life left to some of the concrete and, should the plant be flooded, it would be six months before the city would have portable or drinking water.
Moore asked engineer and city residents Lyn Makeever, who also served on the Selection Committee, to give his opinion on the plan.
“It’s now time to replace the plant before it fails,” said Makeever, who worked for the city in the 1980s. “We are getting closer every year. We want that safety, we need it. Nobody likes paying the rate increases but it’s the only way we’ll have money to build the new facility.”
Service Committee Chairman Bruce Truka didn’t like the water rate increases but he understood the need for the new plant.
“We’ve got the get the best piece of equipment for the lowest amount of money and I think that’s what we’ve done,” Truka said. “I don’t like the increases, I think everybody on that committee understood that I didn’t like the increases, but that’s what has to be done.”
If anybody thought the city didn’t need a new water treatment, Truka suggested that they call Fox and have him walk them through the plant.
“You probably won’t make it all the way through the building before you’re afraid something’s going to happen,” Truka stated.
“I think that anybody that really sits down and thinks about it will realize that it’s needed and it’s needed now and would be willing to try to adjust to the increase that we request,” said Finance Committee chairman Bill O’Rourke.
“This is bare bones minimum,” Auditor Joyce Schifer said about the plans. “It scares me because if this plant does fail — and you have to understand that this is going to take 20 months to build a new plant — and if we don’t have a water source. . . we can’t wait until it fails. We have to have a plan in place. We absolutely have to.”
No decision was made by O’Rourke or Service Committee Chairman Truka on the water rates. The committee chairmen elected to review the information presented once again before taking action. A meeting will be set at a later time.