Water tower plan sees setback
Council to reassess ideas
By STU MERRY
It’s time to take a step back and rethink how to proceed with plans to add a new above ground water storage facility.
At Monday’s regular monthly meeting, council members heard that funding requests through the USDA Rural Development were turned down. The request was for $4.2 million.
In a letter to Mayor Shannon Jeffers, Mark Wax, community programs director with the USDA wrote that "it appears the city should have the ability to obtain credit from commercial sources at reasonable rates and terms to finance the proposed project."
In a second letter, Jeffrey Mattern, engineer manager with the State Water Commission, wrote the current water supply funding appropriation is allocated based on the submitted list of projects and that funding could become available at a later date.
Breaking the news, Jeffers recommended maybe it is time the city incurs a little debt and pay for it through city funds. He pointed out to the council that water rates would not have to be raised and no bonding would be needed.
Alderman Chad Betz urged moving forward. So did councilman Chris Gratton. "Keep moving forward with it."
