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Council OKs sewage treatment plant loan

Marietta City Council unanimously passed legislation authorizing a bond for more than $6 million Thursday in a special council meeting at the Armory.

The funds will come from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Pollution Control Loan Fund for a total of $6,806,698.53 to be repaid over 30 years.

The funds will go to pay for scopes 2 and 3 of Phase III of renovations to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, located behind the Lafayette Plaza in Marietta. Renovations of the plant began in 2011 following the signing of a 40-year contract between the city and Washington County Commissioners to upgrade the plant and expand it to allow for sewage from the county to be processed there.

City Law Director Paul Bertram explained that due to the length of repayment of this new bond, what would have originally been considered a loan to the city is now a bond.

“If it were 20 years or under it would be a loan with a promissory note,” he said. “But because it’s for 30 years, it had to be a subordinated bond to be paid for through our water and sewer revenues for 30 years.”

Previous phases of the project have been paid for similarly through loans from the Ohio Public Works Commission and then assessed through water and sewer rates. In November of 2011 the city began Phase I of the renovation at a total cost of $5,645,106. Following the completion of that phase, the city began Phase II in January of 2013 at a total cost of $6,722,226.

Councilman Tom Vukovic, D-4th Ward, asked when repayment for the new bond would begin. Bill Dauber, assistant safety-service director, said the first payment would be due in 2018.

“We’re doing a 30-year bond on this so we can split up the costs for our customers and it won’t hit them as hard,” said Councilman Mike McCauley, D-2nd Ward.

Bertram said his previous questions voiced at a water and sewer committee meeting Tuesday about the trust agreement as outlined in the legislation had been cleared up and a few edits to the agreement would be made before the final contract is signed.

“I spoke with bond council and believe we can go ahead with this,” he said.

Councilman Roger Kalter, D-1st Ward, said in his closing statement that he appreciated the work Bertram, McCauley and City Engineer Joe Tucker had put into the work on the renovation of the plant.

“It’s all of your hard work that will ensure that we have a working sewer system for many years to come,” he said.

Likewise, Vukovic said he hoped as the city wrapped up its end of the wastewater sewage system agreement with the county by renovating the plant, that the county would live up to their end of the deal to bring Devola and Oak Grove residents on line and off of septic systems.

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