Cedartown OKs sewer project loans

♦ Lower rate for GEFA financing than thought

The City of Cedartown is moving into the next stage of a forthcoming wastewater system upgrade with approval of loan conditions with the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority.

City Commissioners voted unanimously to accept a $3 million loan from GEFA at a 1.25 percent interest rate, much less than what the city expected to pay. The loan is being used to fund the cost of new lift stations in dire need of replacement, replacement rotary screens at the wastewater plant to remove trash out of the system, and the renovation of a sewer line on Cave Spring Road.

“That will save the city many, many thousands of dollars,” City Manager Bill Fann said when he reported back to the commission on the conditions of the loan.

News of the lower rate for the loan on the project through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which provides municipalities needed funding for water

projects on a rotating basis thanks to money provided from the state and federal governments, came in August after the GEFA board met and gave their approval for the project.

The resolution approved by commissioners is the latest step in a project years in the making to upgrade Cedartown’s wastewater system.

Fann presented the project to city leaders during a work session back in March for commissioners to consider. At the time, they projected a cost of at least $2.5 million for the needed replacements and repairs at lift stations on Blanche Street and Cave Spring Road, where problems from leaks and blockages in the past have caused significant concerns to officials.

Back during the city’s work session in March, Fann and City Engineer Ronnie Wood presented a long list of issues at the lift stations and the need for the rotary screens to be replaced at the city’s wastewater treatment facility.

Much needed repairs and replacements that have been put off by past administrations for more than 15 years, Fann previously said.

Fann said the next step in the project is for bids to go out to complete the work, which will be opened and reviewed in October.

After the project’s contractor is decided upon, and expects work to get underway on the system repairs and upgrades sometime between November and January based on weather and other work the contractor might have.

The work is meant to fix ongoing influent and infiltration into the city’s sewer system from groundwater, which puts additional stresses on the lines and pumps used to move wastewater to the system’s treatment plant off Girard Avenue.

Along with the lift station replacements, the wastewater treatment plant will get new rotary screen replacements that help filter out trash collected in the wastewater system and to slipline a sewer line on Cave Spring Road.

That will require a membrane to be placed over the old line to keep groundwater from infiltrating the line, Fann explained.

“I’m very pleased with the whole project,” Fann said.

Commission Chair Jordan Hubbard added his own happiness over the forthcoming wastewater system improvements.

“That’s a win-win Mr. Manager,” Hubbard said in praise of Fann’s work.