Kathy Parker
Rural Water District 6 has approved selling water to the town of Adair and Adair trustees want to buy it.
There is a Department of Environmental Quality mandate that will force the town to spend around $400,000 for filtration to bring the water quality up to standard at the current plant.
The problem, Water Superintendent Scott Martin said, is there is “no room for growth. We’re maxed out.” The water plant is functioning at capacity and it is not possible to add more customers. There are two developers waiting for water to build housing additions.
If the town runs three miles of 12-inch water line from RWD 6, the town will have an unlimited water supply. Engineer Dwayne Henderson said he thinks it will be possible to run the water line for less money than implementing the filtration system.
Trustees asked Henderson to complete a time and cost estimate on running the new water line.
The sewer plant upgrade has been in the works since 1998. The project, estimated at $327,700 at that time, is now estimated at $1.2 million. Trustees now must decide where to get the money for the project.
Since borrowing government money has a cheaper interest rate and longer payback option that other means, trustees will likely get the money from that source. Government money requires environmental information documents, which include a study to guarantee there are no American Burying Beetles on the construction site. The beetles are on the endangered species list and have been found in northeast Oklahoma. Trustees approved a $2,500 expenditure to complete the beetle survey.
Henderson said federal funding will take six to nine months to complete the application.
Adair currently has a loan from Rural Development that was made in 1991. The 40-year note has a $172,000 pay off. Options for financing include paying off that loan before starting another. That will take most of the town’s liquid funds, but it will take away that payment.
After looking at all the options, trustees will try to get the loan from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. Water and sewer rates will have to be increased. As one of the conditions of the loan, the town must make 25 percent more than expenses each month to assure the OWRB it can repay the loan. The loan also requires the town to have 10 percent of the amount of the loan in the bank. Trustees voted to raise the rates. Raising the rates is one requirement of the loan. The amount will not be definite until OWRB looks at the proposed rate schedule and determines whether it will be sufficient.
“We’re pretty much in the hole every month on the water side of it,” Town Clerk Melissa Crawford told trustees.
The OWRB loan, if approved, will have a 30 year pay off. Technically, OWRB cannot make a 30-year loan until April, so the note will likely first be approved as a 20-year note.
