New "Wastewater Plant" for Marfa
NOTE: This post has been edited to place the responsibility for the poor planning of the meeting and presentations on the city administration. Even though the agenda was posted three days in advance, Mr. Pink of Parkhill, Smith and Cooper was not notified until the day before the meeting. Had the city planned a proper public hearing two weeks in advance, the public and city and engineers could have learned a lot from a proper presenation. I have edited this entry to be fairer. My apologies for presenting the situation unfairly to start. Parkhill, Smith & Cooper have done an excellent job in preparing the assessment of the project. Citizens should request to see Mr. Sauceda's copy. The city should plan Public Hearings properly for citizens to attend and for participants to prepare presentations.
-RobC
In one of the lighter moments at last night's meeting, engineer Mr. Pink described our current Imhoff wastewater system in "common" language terms after trying hard to delicately describe the workings of a wastewater system to the council and audience. He eventually summed it up succinctly after talking technically of effluent and sediment and flow bars and storage tanks. Mr. Pink did his best to describe the work to be done for the $1.265M loan on the agenda. In the end, Marfa may be getting a brand new million-dollar "wastewater plant" including aerators if the loan application that council approved last night is granted by the state. Essentially, Mayor Lanman and Administrator Sauceda finally gave us a public hearing of sorts without calling it that. The discussion on the wastewater plant took almost two hours and served the purpose of a public hearing so that citizens and council could ask questions.
It was good to have the ability to discuss this publicly. Lanman and Sauceda should take this as a positive sign that public hearings are in the best interests of everybody. These should be scheduled separately and publicly announced and not buried in the agenda for a regular council meeting. Unfortunately, the engineering firm for the project was given only one day's notice before the presentation and the city did not make copies of the engineer's report available for the public to review. It was difficult to understand the complexities of the project because the city did not share the details and did not give the engineer time to prepare a presentation. This kind of last-minute running around is counter-productive and disrespectful of citizens and council.
I commented on the handout from the previous meeting to help answer a question about cost. The wastewater plant is a $954,000 project, the replacement of sewer pipes in 40 blocks throughout Marfa is a $719,000 project by their estimates. This totals to a $1.7M project, but we are borrowing only $1.265M. The difference is that there is another $413,000 that they are counting on from a USDA/RD fund. This might be in the form of $3000,000 loan and $100,000 grant. It could also all be a loan. Or we might not get it. This places the entire project in a confusing place. If we get the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) loan, it will not cover all the work. So we will need to borrow more money to finish the job or settle for less than completion of the total sewer upgrade. There remains confusion on the loading costs for bond counsel and financial advisor, but it appears to be less than $50,000 for the entire loan. Because we are a disadvantaged community, the State of Texas is loaning us this money with no interest.
Council's approval of the loan application keeps us in the running for this 0% loan process from TWDB. We will find out in the spring if our application is accepted. If so, the engineers will do a more complete design including environmental impact assessment. Then construction bids will be sought for whatever work we can afford. We may spend more or less than $1.265M.
Readers of this blog and I have raised many issues with this poorly executed application process. Let me cover some of the issues discussed in this blog recently. First, Mayor Lanman reported on a conversation with Mrs. MacGuire about extending the lease on the land under Marfa's treatment plant. He says that she intends to renew the lease. For that we all owe her and her family a deep debt of gratitude. Nothing is in writing yet, but presumably that will be taken care of before we start spending money.
The payback method of the loan was also discussed. Councilmember WIlliams expressed concerns about charging every utility bill an extra $5 per month for 20 years as proposed by Lanman and Sauceda. Marfa's new official financial advisor, Larry Skiles, said that we had flexibility to schedule our own terms for the payback and that the only thing that mattered is that we pledged to pay the money back from revenue. Marfa retains the flexibility to come up with a more sane way to charge this to utility customers. Under Lanman and Sauceda's proposal, every utility bill would pay approximately $5 per month more. This means that a retired person on a fixed income with one bathroom would pay $5 a month. The Hotel Paisano, Riata, and Thunderbird would also pay $5 each per month for all their bathrooms. All the trailers in the trailer park south of Marfa would pay $5 for the single utility bill at that location. This is nonsense and unfair. Let's hope city hall can come up with a better system of charging users that will reflect the value that each user gets from the new wastewater plant.
Mr. Pink and Mr. Skiles were pessimistic about available grants. Loans are easier. Council was asked to keep the pressure on Lanman and Sauceda to look for grants. Councilmember Williams intends to do just that. I don't hold out much hope that they will do the extra work for grants if the loan is approved. As mentioned by Councilmember Martinez, this work was started years ago under Curtis Schrader, and much work had already been done. Lanman and Sauceda did nothing to start this project, they have simply pushed the loan application through in the last few weeks. Martinez mentioned that he was voting in favor of the loan application to continue a process that was started years ago.
As I have stated before, Marfa needs a new wastewater treatment plant. The city has started negotiations for an extended lease, promises to look for more grants, will come up with a fairer way to charge users for this cost, and promises more public hearings before starting construction. It sounds like steps in the right direction. Let's hope they remember these promises. Stay tuned for another potential loan of $413,000 to complete funding of this project. Then get set for the big loan of $3.9M that Lanman and Sauceda are likely to present to us after the first of the year for work on the water side of the infrastructure. Let's hope they respect the taxpayers by holding proper public hearings.
-RobC
In one of the lighter moments at last night's meeting, engineer Mr. Pink described our current Imhoff wastewater system in "common" language terms after trying hard to delicately describe the workings of a wastewater system to the council and audience. He eventually summed it up succinctly after talking technically of effluent and sediment and flow bars and storage tanks. Mr. Pink did his best to describe the work to be done for the $1.265M loan on the agenda. In the end, Marfa may be getting a brand new million-dollar "wastewater plant" including aerators if the loan application that council approved last night is granted by the state. Essentially, Mayor Lanman and Administrator Sauceda finally gave us a public hearing of sorts without calling it that. The discussion on the wastewater plant took almost two hours and served the purpose of a public hearing so that citizens and council could ask questions.
It was good to have the ability to discuss this publicly. Lanman and Sauceda should take this as a positive sign that public hearings are in the best interests of everybody. These should be scheduled separately and publicly announced and not buried in the agenda for a regular council meeting. Unfortunately, the engineering firm for the project was given only one day's notice before the presentation and the city did not make copies of the engineer's report available for the public to review. It was difficult to understand the complexities of the project because the city did not share the details and did not give the engineer time to prepare a presentation. This kind of last-minute running around is counter-productive and disrespectful of citizens and council.
I commented on the handout from the previous meeting to help answer a question about cost. The wastewater plant is a $954,000 project, the replacement of sewer pipes in 40 blocks throughout Marfa is a $719,000 project by their estimates. This totals to a $1.7M project, but we are borrowing only $1.265M. The difference is that there is another $413,000 that they are counting on from a USDA/RD fund. This might be in the form of $3000,000 loan and $100,000 grant. It could also all be a loan. Or we might not get it. This places the entire project in a confusing place. If we get the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) loan, it will not cover all the work. So we will need to borrow more money to finish the job or settle for less than completion of the total sewer upgrade. There remains confusion on the loading costs for bond counsel and financial advisor, but it appears to be less than $50,000 for the entire loan. Because we are a disadvantaged community, the State of Texas is loaning us this money with no interest.
Council's approval of the loan application keeps us in the running for this 0% loan process from TWDB. We will find out in the spring if our application is accepted. If so, the engineers will do a more complete design including environmental impact assessment. Then construction bids will be sought for whatever work we can afford. We may spend more or less than $1.265M.
Readers of this blog and I have raised many issues with this poorly executed application process. Let me cover some of the issues discussed in this blog recently. First, Mayor Lanman reported on a conversation with Mrs. MacGuire about extending the lease on the land under Marfa's treatment plant. He says that she intends to renew the lease. For that we all owe her and her family a deep debt of gratitude. Nothing is in writing yet, but presumably that will be taken care of before we start spending money.
The payback method of the loan was also discussed. Councilmember WIlliams expressed concerns about charging every utility bill an extra $5 per month for 20 years as proposed by Lanman and Sauceda. Marfa's new official financial advisor, Larry Skiles, said that we had flexibility to schedule our own terms for the payback and that the only thing that mattered is that we pledged to pay the money back from revenue. Marfa retains the flexibility to come up with a more sane way to charge this to utility customers. Under Lanman and Sauceda's proposal, every utility bill would pay approximately $5 per month more. This means that a retired person on a fixed income with one bathroom would pay $5 a month. The Hotel Paisano, Riata, and Thunderbird would also pay $5 each per month for all their bathrooms. All the trailers in the trailer park south of Marfa would pay $5 for the single utility bill at that location. This is nonsense and unfair. Let's hope city hall can come up with a better system of charging users that will reflect the value that each user gets from the new wastewater plant.
Mr. Pink and Mr. Skiles were pessimistic about available grants. Loans are easier. Council was asked to keep the pressure on Lanman and Sauceda to look for grants. Councilmember Williams intends to do just that. I don't hold out much hope that they will do the extra work for grants if the loan is approved. As mentioned by Councilmember Martinez, this work was started years ago under Curtis Schrader, and much work had already been done. Lanman and Sauceda did nothing to start this project, they have simply pushed the loan application through in the last few weeks. Martinez mentioned that he was voting in favor of the loan application to continue a process that was started years ago.
As I have stated before, Marfa needs a new wastewater treatment plant. The city has started negotiations for an extended lease, promises to look for more grants, will come up with a fairer way to charge users for this cost, and promises more public hearings before starting construction. It sounds like steps in the right direction. Let's hope they remember these promises. Stay tuned for another potential loan of $413,000 to complete funding of this project. Then get set for the big loan of $3.9M that Lanman and Sauceda are likely to present to us after the first of the year for work on the water side of the infrastructure. Let's hope they respect the taxpayers by holding proper public hearings.
posted by RobC at 8:36 AM
5 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
the mayor did not go to austin today as reported by others. let's check our facts folks.
Wait, let me guess. The package had already been sent prior to council approval. That is the way things are usually done. Then they could fax the Resolutions in.
Post a Comment
<< Home