City Awarded Community Block Development Grant for sewage repair

City Administrator Neal Welch and City Secretary Tim Houston took a moment to discuss the City’s plans for spending recently awarded grant funds and the amended budget.  

The City was awarded a Community Development Block Grant—a federal grant administered through the Texas Department of Agriculture in the amount of $275,000. As a condition of the grant the City will commit an additional $41,250 in matching funds, and the Olney Industrial Development Corporation will contribute $13,750 in leveraging funds. The City plans to use the funds to replace some of the older sewer lines that will save the city money.

“The sewer lines are the priority with the grant funds because the lines are old, and we have a lot of stormwater infiltration through the old pipes, which impacts the gallons of water that are treated. Replacing the lines will stop the infiltration of the stormwater, reduce wear and tear, and which can cause us to go over the limit that we can legally treat at the wastewater treatment plant. Also, replacement of the line keeps us inside the restrictions that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has set for us,” Welch said.

Eventually, the City plans to start the discussion about road improvements that may ease the concerns of residents who have expressed interest about the condition of the roads in Olney. Still, there will not be any significant improvements this year due to the expensive costs, according to Houston.

 “One of the things we’re looking into for road improvements is trying to do a consortium effort with neighboring towns where four or five cities will get together and each chip in $100,000-$150,000 to get sections of roads done at one time. We can pool our money and lower material costs overall,” Houston said. “Most of our efforts this year will be to maintain the roads we have. We are not unsympathetic because we drive the same roads. The roads remain a priority, but repair to the roads is an expensive proposition and is one of those things you must plan well in advance for.”

In addition to replacing sewage lines and road maintenance, Houston said the City would begin looking at various state grant requirements to identify which ones the City may be eligible for to apply towards other improvements in Olney. The Texas Department of Transportation has awarded a grant that will be used for improvements to the runway at the airport. However, there are very few, if any, grants available for roads and it seems grants for most projects in rural areas are drying up.

In addition to searching for grant funds to make improvements, Welch and Houston reviewed the initially submitted budget. They determined that there was an initial software error that got calculated into this year’s budget, which resulted in less money available for improvements in the current budget.  

“Our budget is a little better than last year, but we do not have the funds we thought we had. We plan to submit an amended budget to the City Council that shows all funds are accounted for; the amended budget will reflect a reduced amount of the money initially allocated for projects,” said Welch.

There will be updates disclosed at upcoming City Council meetings that occur on the second and fourth Mondays at 6 p.m.