Smithville Aldermen Authorize Study of Water and Sewer Rates

September 4, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The City of Smithville is contracting with a company to perform a study of water and sewer rates. The idea is to get a professional opinion on what the rates ought to be to keep the city’s water and sewer utility financially solvent as is required by the state.

During Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting, the aldermen voted to enter into an agreement with Buddy Petty of RateStudies based in Hermitage to conduct the study. The cost to the city to do the analysis is $9,000.

“We just need to know how to move forward,” said Mayor Josh Miller. “I talked to the state comptroller’s office a couple of years ago and they recommended that the city go up on rates two percent every year in the water and sewer account”.

The city raised water rates by two percent last year and again by four percent this year.

City customers now pay $7.70 per thousand gallons of usage. Rates for customers outside the city limits are $11.55 per thousand. City sewer customers pay $7.17 per thousand.

“What I want the public to understand is that while I want to pay the cheapest (water and sewer rates) I can too, we (city) have to make money (show a profit) because if we don’t and lose money in two consecutive years, they (state) can come in and set the rates. We don’t want the state to do that,” said Mayor Miller.

He also explained that under state law money from the city’s general fund cannot be transferred to shore up the water and sewer department.

“We cannot mix funds. We can’t mix general funds with water and sewer funds. It has to support itself,” said Mayor Miller.

“I think we just need to know where we are moving forward because we don’t want any trouble with the state comptroller’s office,” Mayor Miller said.

According to the 2022-23 city budget, the water and sewer fund is expected to show a small surplus of $6,403 by June 30, 2023.

Results of the water rate study are expected by the end of December.

September 3, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The City of Smithville will soon undertake an almost one-million-dollar project to rehabilitate deteriorating sewer lines and manholes in certain parts of town including Earl Avenue, West Main Street, and Carter Street.

During Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting, the aldermen voted to award a bid to the John T. Hall Construction Company of Sparta in the amount of $939,620 which was the least expensive of the three bids submitted. The other two bids were from Pipeworks of Tullahoma at $1,159,000 and H.L. Construction Management of Cleveland for $1,186,000.

Earlier this year the city had budgeted $750,000 from its share of American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) grant funds to cover costs of the rehab effort but as it turned out that amount was not enough. The city will make up the difference from its water and sewer fund reserves.

In March, the city contracted with J.R. Wauford & Company Consulting Engineers to provide services related to the project.

Daniel Tribble, Manager of Field Services for the J.R. Wauford Company who addressed the mayor and aldermen Thursday night, said the project will be done in phases.

“We had been requested to review sewer lines that had been identified by your city personnel that are subject to what is believed to be inflow. Inflow is simply when water that is collected in streets and roadways or flowing in ditches and creeks enters your sewer lines, which in turn increases the sewer that you have to treat at your wastewater plant. A lot of times the vitrified clay pipe (VCP) like any utility has a certain life span and over years it simply deteriorates. The reports we had received are that in this case gravels, dirt, and other material that is not sewer had been found in these locations where the sewer line is believed to be failing or collapsing which allows the debris and inflow into your sewer lines. More than likely these lines would be replaced with PVC pipe which is the standard 8-inch PVC that we call SDR-26 sewer line pipe,” said Tribble.

“Due to the cost of this job and the available funds we (J.R. Wauford Company) have proposed a phased approach to complete rehabilitation of the subject lines. Phase one of this project includes the open cut sewer replacement of approximately 2,700 feet of sewer line along Earl Avenue, West Main Street, and Carter Street. The second part of phase one of this job is the CCTV or closed-circuit television inspection of approximately 7,400 feet of sewer lines mostly in cross country areas that flow along creeks and not in roadways. Our plan is to review the CCTV footage and make a recommendation to the city as to the appropriate rehabilitation methods for these areas,” Tribble continued.

“We received three bids and sent a recommendation letter to the mayor. Our opinion and probable cost before the bid opening was approximately $800,000. This is to replace sewer lines along West Main Street, Carter Street, and Earl Avenue. You can see some of the streets sinking in which is evidence of the sewer lines failing in these locations. It was our recommendation based of a review of the bids and communication with the contractor that the project be awarded to John T. Hall Construction of Sparta at a unit price contract value of $939,620”, said Tribble

The project is expected to begin early next year.

September 3, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County High School will host a Financial Aid/College Planning Night and Pre-FAFSA Workshop on Tuesday, September 6 from 5-7 p.m. in the cafeteria.

The guest speaker will be Dustin Rawls of TSAC.

Students in grades 9-12 and their parents are strongly encouraged to attend in order to receive important information concerning college/technical school application, financial aid, and scholarships including the Tennessee Education Lottery and Tennessee Promise Scholarships.

Rawls will also conduct a Pre-FAFSA workshop during this event. Students and parents have to fill out the FAFSA during their senior year in order to apply for state and federal financial aid including the lottery scholarship, TN Promise and Pell Grants. This workshop is designed to help students and parents prepare for FAFSA filing.

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