Arkansas - Las Animas Sanitary Sewer System Improvements_Application

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Water Supply Reserve Account - Grant Application Form Fonn Revised May 2007 address the additional severe problems that exist within the system. The specific goals of the project include: 1. Reduce the amount of infiltration and exfiltration from the sanitary sewer mains thereby enhancing ground water quality and increasing water quantity. 2. Undertake sanitary sewer collection system improvements to eliminate old, deteriorating, failing sanitary sewer mains and to reduce operation and maintenance costs 3. Replace and move the city's main lift station north of the railroad tracks. 4. Eliminate the potential pipe failure of the two existing sanitary sewer crossings underneath the railroad tracks. This requires the elimination and replacement of the 15-inch gravity sanitary sewer main and the 1 O-inch force main with an 8-inch gravity main. 5. Undertake the necessary improvements at the city's north lift station to extend the longevity of the lift station in addition to have the ability to determine the production of the lift station. 6. Provide the means to perform composite samples at the city's wastewater treatment plant. The overall goal of the project is to replace old, deteriorating conveyance facilities with new facilities capable of properly conveying wastewater to the city's WWTP and provide the ease of mind that said facilities are not problematic, operating as needed and required. These facilities are to eliminate backups within the collection system, reduce the exposure of the city to various costs associated with failing collection mains and enhance the underlying ground water by reducing exfiltration form the sewer system. This will not only reduce human health risks associated with raw sewage, but will also eliminate raw sewage from leaking out of the collection system replacement sections into the surrounding ground water. Currently, the city has secured a number of financial commitments for their project. They include a $500,000 grant from the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) through the Energy Mineral Impact Assistance (EMIA) Program, $377,000 in loan through the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority's Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund Disadvantaged Communities Program, a $10,000 grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and a local commitment to the project of $150,000. This brings the total available funds in the range of $1 ,037,000. The PER identified a total of $1 ,587,305 worth of improvements on the sanitary sewer system. Given the fact that the city will have to increase its user rates by an additional $1.50, thus bringing the monthly rate up to $25.00, the city does not have any additional debt capacity or reserves to bridge the financial shortfall. Currently without the rate increase, the city's single-family user rate is substantially over the state's average single-family sewer bill of $14.80. In addition, the city's median household income of $26,157 is significantly below the state's median household income of $47,203. Comparing the annual cost to the median household income shows that the city's constituents pay over three times the average percentage of their income for sewer service when compared to the state at large. Without the Roundtable funding, the city will have to cut back their project and miss the opportunity of economy of scale. Furthermore, the city highly desires to pursue all of the identified critical priorities; however, the current financial package lacks the necessary funds to undertake them. Therefore, the city is hereby requesting $200,000 in the form of grant funds from the Roundtable. Based on the nature of the funds mentioned above, the city will be creating an enterprise fund within the sewer fund as described under TABOR. Such being the case, should the city receive any state severance tax funds in excess of 10% of the total revenues, their enterprise fund status will be invalidated for that year. This will result in the city's inability to receive any additional grant funds within the sewer enterprise fund for that given year. Furthermore, in 1999 the voters of the City of Las Animas approved an ordinance authorizing the city, without creating any new tax or creating an increase in any current tax, to collect, retain and expend the full proceeds of all of the city's sales tax and use tax, nonfederal grants and other revenue from any other source, not withstanding any restriction on fiscal year spending, including without limitation of the restriction of Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution, effective January 1, 2000 for the use for expenditures for any lawful, municipal purposes. F:\WPDATA\Las Animas\Wastwater\06 SSCoI\Financial\Roundtable\06-07 Application (may 07).doc 10