City to get $3 million for sewer work

The city of Neosho will receive $3 million in federal stimulus funds to make repairs to its aging wastewater treatment system.

City officials recently received word from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources that instead of $595,000 originally promised under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Neosho would receive $3 million.

“What I take out of this is that we will be able to do a lot more than anticipated, while maintaining a rate structure that will be below the average of our neighbors,” said City Manager Jan Blase.

The city currently has plans to renovate both its water and wastewater treatment systems. Last August, voters approved an $8.5 million bond issue to fund sewer improvements. The city is borrowing nearly $5.5 million of this total from the state’s clean water revolving fund at about 2 percent interest to fund the initial phase of the wastewater project. These plans include: Replacing 18-inch interceptor lines with 36- and 48-inch pipes; building a retention basin to hold spillover sewage and storm water for chemical treatment; and modernizing controls at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, among other steps.

And this August, the city has a $9.5 million state revolving fund leveraged loan issue on the ballot. The city hopes to obtain state funding to begin improvements to the city’s water treatment system.
Blase said a yes vote will allow the following improvements:
 

• Replacing older mains in the downtown and Crowder areas;
• Adding an orthophosphate feed at wells and the water treatment plant;
•  Adding a raw turbidity meter at the water plant;
•  Rehabiliting the primary sedimentation basin at the water plant;
•  Rehabilitating the secondary settling basins;
•  Rehabilitating rapid mix basin No. 2;
•  Chlorine storage building;
•  Replacing filters under drains / media;
•  Adding filters to waste piping;
•  Adding clear-well capacity for chlorine contact time, as well as high service pumps;
•  Adding backwash tank security / flocculation basin lighting;
•  Replacing Crowder valves and meters and the Dewey / Finney wellhouse;
•  Adding emergency power at the raw water pump station, Baxter pump station, and the Crowder pump station;
•  Removing the old tower at Dewey / Finney;
•  Installing 19,200 feet of 12-inch Kodiak water line.

Should voters approve the improvements to the water issue, rates would not increase for at least a year, Blase said, with 18 months being more likely. Annual rate increases to keep up with inflation would still be incurred, the city manager said. Water rates would increase by $9.46 a month for most residential customers.

Blase said many of the city’s water lines have been in place since the treatment plant opened in 1941.

“There have been no major repairs to that infrastructure,” he said. “It has been kept up — you could eat off of the floors down there — they have done a great job with what they have.”
Blase also said having the improvements to the water and wastewater treatment systems could mean more revenues in city coffers for services such as police and fire protection and street repair. This could be achieved, he said, by the sale of water to area cities.

“What does Neosho have in abundance that we can sell?” Blase asked. “It’s water. This is where we have to push ourselves.”

Sales tax revenues for the year are down about 3 percent from the 5 to 6 percent that was projected, Blase said.

“The scary part is that this is our municipal services or our governmental revenues that we use to run pools, parks, streets, police, fire, and city hall,” the city manager said. “That’s after Lowe’s is factored in. Who will be the next Lowe’s? Not Home Depot, not Macy’s, not Banana Republic.
What we’re going to have to do is cut expenses, or increase revenues or sell something.”
Citing a report published in January by the Missouri Economic and Information Center, Blase said one out of two Newton County residents are traveling to nearby Jasper County to buy goods and services.

The only thing to do, the city manager said, is to either create more retail merchandise sales or make cuts.

“We’ve already cut to the bone,” Blase said.

So far this year, the only capital improvements the city has made is the purchase of two tornado sirens. He said this fiscal year, while there have been hardly any capital improvements, there have not been any city personnel laid off, nor have there been cuts in services. This could change in the near future, as cuts as drastic as 10 percent could be made if the city doesn’t find another revenue source.

“After the second year, we could see drastic cuts in service,” Blase said. “We are dependent on sales tax. We’re doing the budget now, with worst-case scenarios. With 1, 2, and 3 years, services could experience a 10 percent decline each year. There will be very little services if this continues three years. We have to find a solution to abate this problem.”

Selling water may prevent raising taxes in the city, Blase said.

“Other towns don’t have the water for an industry that uses several million gallons,” the city manager said. “We can sell to industry users at a rate they can’t get other places. Water is no longer something we can take for granted. Very few towns our size treat surface water the way we treat it. It’s a very big advantage to us and we need to use that advantage.”