Reform City Council learns timetable for building new sewer treatment plant, may
raise rates
By Doug Sanders Jr.
Editor and Publisher
The Reform City Council learned last Tuesday night it may have to raise sewer
and/or water rates to pay for a new $1 million sewer treatment plant.
Jonathan R. Bonner, Engineering Services Manager with the CFM Group of
Tuscaloosa, gave the Council some of the options to consider now that the city
has to construct a new wastewater treatment plant to meet standards set by the
Environmental Protection Agency and the Alabama Department of Environmental
Management.
Bonner has drawn up plans for the new treatment plant to be installed where the
existing sewer treatment plant is now. The City of Reform has spent thousands
of dollars to improve the old plant over the past two years but it has
repeatedly come under fire from ADEM for failing to meet standards.
Bonner estimated that the new plant would cost the city $1.108 million, and
funding would come from an SRF loan through the EPA. It would be paid off by
the city over a 20-year period.
In order to pay off the loan, the city will be forced to raise sewer rates about
$11 a month on its 516 sewer customers. However, the Council could raise water
rates about $8 a month on its 776 water customers.
Bonner estimated that if work begins soon on the new wastewater treatment plant,
it could be completed by the end of the year, and the first payment on the loan
would be due two year from the completion date or sometime in early 2016. The
Council could implement a gradual reduction in rates over several months so as
to allow customers to get used to the increase in costs.
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SOME OF THE HEADLINES IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE INCLUDE:
Superintendent of Education to formally ask Commission to pass one-cent tax for
schools
Gordo applies for $300,000 sidewalk grant
16th Annual Freedom Creek Blues Festival to be held in Aliceville June 1
26th Annual Mule Day to be held in downtown Gordo May 31-June 1
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