City of Elgin organizes for new water system

ELGIN — A planning committee was formed Aug. 18 to address the city’s water needs and the state’s requirements for an improved and expanded safe drinking water system.

Mayor John Stover swore in five citizen members of the Safe Drinking Water Planning Committee, including Ed Botz, Michelle Howell, Wendy Benjamin, Brent Linville and Tim McGinness. Their first work session was held Aug. 26 at city hall.

The committee will work in partnership with Anderson Perry engineers who have been working on this project with Stover for the past two years.

Paying for such a project would have been very costly, but that’s when Anderson Perry became aware of available stimulus money and notified the city.

“We applied for the Safe Drinking Water loan on Jan. 28, 2009, and got the good news in July,” said Stover.

The good news was that the city’s water system improvement project qualified for $1.2 million in federal stimulus money to help finance the Safe Drinking Water project. It is funded by a partnership between the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department and local public and private funds.

“The EPA provides money to a Safe Drinking Water revolving loan fund where part of it involves a principal forgiveness,” said Brad Baird, president of Anderson Perry.

Elgin is the only recipient of federal stimulus money for this purpose east of the Cascades, Baird said. Fifty percent of the money that Elgin will receive for this project is forgiven if all stipulations are met and the other 50 percent of the money is a low-interest (3.83 percent) loan payable in 20 years. The timing for this kind of financial assistance is remarkable.

“This is a great deal,” said Baird. “It’s like getting a 50 percent grant.”

To get the ball rolling, the city signed the required contract and submitted it to the state last Wednesday. City councilors also passed a motion to enter into a contractual agreement with Anderson Perry to oversee the completion of this three-year project.

Baird said that the city has six months to meet state stipulations, including conducting an environmental review, surveying the property, completing designs, advertising for bids, opening the bids, choosing a contractor and getting all the plans to the contractor by Feb. 16, 2010.

The project is scheduled for completion in 2012.

During the 20-year loan period, extensive records must be kept. Councilor Sue Moore recommended that the council authorize the creation of a separate checking account, with new checks requiring double signatures. This suggestion will be decided upon at a later council meeting.