Lamar to pursue $3 million for water system repairs
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
Lamar Town Council held a special called meeting Monday, December 19, and voted to pursue a loan/grant option that would finance $3 million in repairs and upgrades for their municipal water system.
At council’s December 12 meeting, Mike Hanna of Hanna Engineering presented six project options to address key system needs: building a new water treatment plant at a cost of $1.2 million, sinking a new 250 GPM (gallons per minute) well for $362,700, and painting the town’s two elevated water towers on Pearl Street and near the Grooms Building on Cartersville Highway for a combined cost of $477,500.
Hanna recommended a project option totaling just over $3 million which would dig a new water well on the opposite side of town from the old wells (avoiding the areas where trace radium was detected by SC DHEC), construct a new treatment plant, install a new control valve, and paint the water tanks. This option included $342,700 in engineering fees.
The Town of Lamar has been purchasing the entirety of its municipal water supply from the Darlington County Water and Sewer Authority since February of 2016, when DHEC shut down the second of Lamar’s two water wells. Numerous leaks from broken water lines, faulty hydrants, and various plumbing leaks caused the town’s monthly bill to sometimes surpass $13,000, well over the monthly average of $9,000 the town bills its water customers.
Although the town has taken steps to repair many of these leaks, Hanna insisted that buying water from the county is not cost effective, noting that Lamar’s old water system was able to produce 1,000 gallons of water for around 75 cents, while purchasing that same amount of water from DCWSA costs about $2.73.
After taking a week to consider their options, council voted December 19 to apply for a USDA Rural Development (RD) loan/grant program to cover costs not funded by grant monies and other funding sources. Lamar has already secured $200,000 from RIA (South Carolina’s Rural Infrastructure Authority) and possibly another $467,000 in grant money from the S.C. Department of Commerce, specifically earmarked for Lamar’s water system project. Mayor Randy Reynolds said that inquiries would be made with SC Commerce to determine whether that $467,000 can be used as local matching funds for any water system-related grants the town receives.
Hanna suggested that Lamar stands a strong chance of securing $477,500 from RIA to cover painting the two water tanks, so that cost could be subtracted from the initial project estimate of $3,069,000, bringing the RD loan/grant application request down to $2.59 million.
Monthly debt service figures had not been updated for this meeting, but Hanna’s estimates from the previous week indicated that if Lamar reestablishes water service, the town could handily cover loan payments, which could range from around $2,800 to $1,409 depending on the loan-to-grant ratio RD designates for the water project.
Council discussed other water and sewer system funding options with guest Jannie Lathan of Lathan Consulting, LLC. Lathan expressed optimism that Lamar could qualify for federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds if the town could prove that 51 percent of residents – including those outside town limits but served by Lamar’s water system – qualify as low to moderate income (LMI). Lamar’s 2010 U.S. Census results said that only 47 percent of town residents are LMI, but Lathan said that a new income survey could boost that figure above the threshold and allow Lamar to apply for CDBG grants of $750,000, provided the grant money is used to improve services for the LMI residents.
Mayor Reynolds and the council members in attendance – including Mike Lloyd, Willie Howell, and Angele White-Bradley – agreed that action is necessary to ensure Lamar’s fiscal solvency for the future, and a functioning municipal water supply business is the most reliable way to make it happen. Howell departed before meeting’s end, and Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Thomas was absent, but Reynolds, Lloyd, and White-Bradley voted unanimously and authorized Hanna to begin the RD application process.
Reynolds noted that Thomas and Howell had expressed support for the project and, if present, would likely have voted to proceed.
Hanna explained that the Rural Development application process is lengthy and requires a full engineering survey, so the town might not get an answer about project funding until May of 2017.