CROTHERSVILLE — A water upgrade project in Crothersville is expected to cost $9.6 million.
The good news is there are several funding sources the town can pursue to ensure the project happens.
During a recent meeting, the Crothersville Town Council unanimously approved a commitment letter to provide match money for potential Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative funding.
After the Jackson County Commissioners and Jackson County Redevelopment Commission announced in December that officials elected to not proceed any further with the Uniontown sanitary sewer project’s development, $1.8 million in READI money became available.
That was due to continued significant inflation relative to the cost of construction labor and materials and the current interest rate environment as required to finance the envisioned $25 million project.
To be eligible for the READI money, FPBH Inc. CEO Dan Wright said the town has to have at least 50% of the match money.
He told the council he already has applied for State Revolving Fund money, and he is going after U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development funding, too. The goal is to tap into that money to lessen the impact on residents’ utility bills.
“When push comes to shove, those are subsidized funding rates, so depending on your eligibility and how that falls out, you get a better interest rate than you would on the open market,” he said. “However, in order to get this grant, let’s say even worst-case scenario, you have to go on the open market and get a bond to fund the rest of it, you get the $1.8 million.”
He said he truly believes one or both of those funding sources will come through, and SRF likes to see local American Rescue Plan Act money put into a project, so the READI funds would qualify.
Wright also said the county had set aside ARPA funds for the Uniontown project, so since that project is a no-go, the town could pursue that, too. To use ARPA funds for projects, they must be obligated and under contract by the end of this year and spent by the end of 2026.
“They have enough money to pay all the rest of (the Crothersville project). Whether they will or not is another thing, but they are under the obligation to spend those funds within that time frame, as well, so they are kind of under the gun, as well,” he said.
“The county — unlike a lot of other counties where they piecemealed it out — they did kind of hold it for that project. Now that’s not going, there’s still a big pot of money there for that,” he said. “The suggestion is go ahead and make a request to the county to spend some of that ARPA funding on this project.”
Trena Carter with Administrative Resources association said that would count as the town’s local public match.
Wright said his company already has done a lot of the design for the project, which has several parts.
One of the biggest issues is the town’s water treatment plant. Work will include renovating the facility, installing a new filtering system and more. That portion will cost around $1,595,100.
“Your water plant is in really bad shape,” Wright told the council.
Rehabilitation of the drinking water distribution system is another part of the project. According to the preliminary engineering report, the system lacks adequate isolation valving necessary to properly perform maintenance and make repairs. Inadequate valving raises operation and maintenance costs by increasing the number of man hours required to make emergency repairs.
Additionally, a greater number of customers are impacted when these activities are performed.
The project would include replacing the 4-inch ductile/cast iron water mains if providing fire protection with 6-inch diameter PVC, installing a new remote read metering system, eliminating dead-end mains through looping with minimum 6-inch diameter mains, installing new and/or repair inoperable isolation valves and replacing aged hydrants.
It also would include replacing the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system, installing new fire hydrants to ensure adequate fire protection is provided and replacing minor mains.
This part of the project would be the largest cost, around $5 million.
A majority of the town’s supply, treatment and distribution system is nearing the end of useful life, according to the PER. Broken mains are increasingly becoming a concern, as it is estimated that roughly half of the system is more than 40 years old with the remaining components nearing or exceeding 25 years of age.
The final part involves well production rehabilitation and adding a water tower.
Municipally owned and operated raw water source wells in combination with wholesale purchases by means of a contractual agreement with Stucker Fork Water Utility in Scott County comprise the source water supplies that serves Crothersville. The town also is interconnected with Jackson County Water Utility for emergency use, but there are no current agreements to purchase water from the utility.
FPBH says two of the three wells owned and operated by the town are in working order and in production; however, both wells are required to be in serial operation to supply the volume necessary to meet the town’s needs. This leaves no emergency redundancy.
Solutions to increase production of these wells and/or purchase additional supply from wholesale agreements are vital to ensure a proper system operation, FPBH says in the PER.
The well field work would include replacing well pumps and well electrical, installing dehumidifiers, tuck pointing and painting well buildings, rehabilitating the roof on the well buildings and rehabilitating Well 4 and installing a new well.
The new water tower would be constructed on town property at the Crothersville Industrial Park entrance, and a new altitude valve would be constructed there, too. FPBH looked at the well capacity and treatment capacity in town to ensure it could handle a 75,000-gallon water tower.
The town also will need to supply water to some newly annexed areas, and Wright said this project will be an opportunity to do that.
The water tower could help with future economic development and give the town flexibility when maintenance needs done on the existing water tower in town.
“At this point, it’s hard to get more participation in the industrial park in the section that’s ready to develop because there’s no equalization of water pressure in the area,” Wright said.
“If a factory does come in, they have to provide their own onsite water storage in order to be able to run their sprinkler system and so forth,” he said. “So this would take care of the equalization of the water and also the storage capacity so they wouldn’t have to do onsite storage to be able to run their sprinkler system, which makes it obviously a way more appealing industrial park and they will want to locate here.”