City water plant waits on state approval

The City made its first payment on its $13.5 million revenue bonds for a new water treatment plant last month while waiting for the state’s environmental agency to approve plans, City officials said. The City made its first payment of $543,427.36 in interest and $215,000 in principal on the 2022 revenue bonds, City Secretary Tammy Hourigan said.

The water surcharge, enacted last year to help fund the bonds, has collected $66,000 last month and $330,000 year-to-date from residents and businesses, who pay $35 per month for access to water, Mrs. Hourigan said.

“It is adding up … and I realize it is a problem for some people but it’s doing what it was supposed to do,” she said of the surcharge.

The City was hoping to break ground on the new plant this summer, Mayor Rue Rogers said. That start date likely will be closer to the end of the year, he said last week.

“We issued the bonds and Corlett Probst & Boyd, our engineering firm, put together our initial proposal and they submitted our proposal to TCEQ [Texas Commission on Environmental Quality] a few months ago. TCEQ reviewed it and sent back revisions that we have to make. So now the ball is back in Corlett Probst & Boyd’s court. As soon as those revisions are made, which should be soon, they will send them back to TCEQ to get the final stamp orf approval.”

The City then will send the final plans out for bids and select a construction company, he said. “Ideally going back a year and a half ago, thinking if we could break ground sometime in 2023 we would be on schedule. We are really hopeful that the second half of this year we will be at a point where we can start,” he said.