Land bought for school
By Steve Herring
Published in News on January 26, 2015 1:46 PM
Wayne County will spend $145,250 to purchase slightly more than eight additional acres of land to be used as a septic system drain (leach) field for the new Grantham Middle School.
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday balked at paying $17,500 per acre, but said it was still a cheaper option than the estimated $3.4 million it would cost to extend sewer to the new school.
The septic system will cost about $775,000, they said.
The property acquisition was not on the board's agenda, but was added following a closed session call to discuss the purchase of real property.
The land is owned Edgar Gene Thornton, John Keith Thornton and wife, Denise B. Thornton.
"This property is needed so that we can put an on-site waste treatment facility there," County Manager George Wood said.
Wood said he wanted to explain the economics of the purchase.
The county hired Municipal Engineering to conduct a detailed study that included possible options, he said.
The most expensive option would be to build a pump station at the school that would require a force main of about seven miles extending to the county's gravity sewer system in the Mar-Mac community, Wood said.
The estimated cost of $3.4 million does not include what the county would have to pay Goldsboro to treat the waste, he said.
Also, during the summer when school is out, there would be little flow through the line, Wood said.
"Then you have the issue of does that flow become septic before it hits Goldsboro's system?" he said. "When sewer goes septic, you have major issues. It also creates more gases that eat up your interior concrete and lining, pipes and things.
"Plus (Goldsboro) may have a problem with the treatment and want it watered down before it hits their plant."
The on-site system provides a "significant savings," he said.
"In addition, it is an on-site treatment facility," he said. "So that when it is pumped from the main pipes coming out of the school, it goes to the low point. It will be collected there in a wet well at a pump station and pumped out to basically an underground drainage system.
"So there will be some treatment of it, and then it will be discharged out over roughly an eight-acre site. So part of what we had to do was to look for soils with the best absorption characteristics because the key to this system is how quickly can the soils absorb the excess water."
Commissioner Joe Daughtery said he is sure the commissioners' phones "will ring" because of the $17,500 per acre in Grantham.
However, the board was in an "awkward position" because it had to locate property near the school that could accommodate the septic system, he said.
"We really had very little choice," Daughtery said. "With all of that said, sometimes you have to take the lessor of two evils."
The cost is somewhat over budget, but hopefully that can be made up when bids for the septic system come in, he said.
Chairman Wayne Aycock said that the school board purchased the land for the school several years ago.
At the time and based on what the school board had planned for the site, enough land had been purchased, he said.
"Let's don't point fingers because times have changed because they did purchase that land several years ago," he said.
Wood said the school board had been working well with commissioners.
"It has been a great working relationship -- lately," Aycock said.