Rutland Herald
By STEPHANIE M. PETERS STAFF WRITER - Published: Jan 6, 2010

The city will receive federal stimulus funding for two of five water and sewer projects voters approved in a special election last year, according to city officials.

The two projects, the replacement of the sewer and storm-sewer systems on Crescent and West streets, were ranked above the cutoff on the statewide list of projects competing for the Clean Water Revolving Loan funding, which carries 50 percent loan forgiveness in the form of stimulus money.

On Monday, the aldermen signed off on the loan documents that will allow the city to move ahead with bonding for the $925,000 combined cost of those two projects. With the stimulus funding, the taxpayers will be responsible for only $452,000 of the project cost, plus a 2 percent administration fee that will bring the city's total, 20-year repayment to $565,699, according to Treasurer Wendy Wilton.

That works out to a $28,000 annual payment, which will begin in 2012, she said. 

"It's not everything, but frankly it was the most expensive of those (voter-approved projects) that the Agency of Natural Resources approved for the city," Wilton said. "It will certainly go a long way to getting some critical issues fixed in the city."

According to Department of Public Works officials, the $675,000 of improvements on Crescent Street will replace sewer infrastructure that dates back to the 19th century and an overloaded 70-year-old storm-sewer system on North Main Street.

The West Street improvements, meanwhile, will occur between Green Hills Lane and East Creek and are estimated to cost $250,000.

"We're hoping we can start this spring and have everything buttoned up by the end of the year," said City Engineer Evan Pilachowski. "DPW may be doing some of the finishing work on the projects, which may go into spring 2011."

Of the other three projects, one — the replacement of the interceptor on the southern side of the city — did make ANR's funded list, but was determined by the city to be too expensive, according to Pilachowski. The original cost estimate was $500,000.

Another project, the $100,000 purchase and installation of storage tank disinfection mixers at the water distribution system, was scrapped because it wasn't "going to have as much effect as we thought once we started collecting data," Pilachowski said.

Funding for the final proposal, $35,000 in energy efficiency improvements at the wastewater treatment plant, has been secured through a variety of other sources, including Efficiency Vermont, ANR and federal stimulus dollars from the Department of Energy, according to Pilachowski.

City voters granted bonding approval for the projects twice last year – once in March when the city anticipated stimulus funds would cover 100 percent of the costs, and again in June, when the ballot questions stipulated that stimulus funding must cover at least 50 percent of the cost. In both elections, all five questions passed by more than a 3-to-1 margin.

stephanie.peters@rutlandherald.com