Mount Olive acquires funding approval for sewer project
By Steve Herring
Published in News on April 26, 2016 1:46 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Mount Olive has received final funding approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture clearing the way for a $1 million wastewater treatment plant project.
The USDA funds include a $771,000 loan repayable over a 40-year period at an interest rate of 1.75 percent.
Aaron Gaskins told the board at its April 11 session that he has been with USDA for 13 years and that is the lowest interest rate he has ever seen.
The town's annual payment would be $26,970.
The funding also includes a $211,000 grant. Mount Olive will provide a $105,000 match.
The local match will be spent first followed by the loan and then the grant, Gaskins said.
The project is designed to address problems at the town's wastewater treatment plant that have resulted in several large sewer spills over the past few months.
The spills were caused by the plant's inability to handle heavy rainfalls that overwhelmed the system.
The town board signed the paperwork seeking the final approval during its April 11 session.
Town Manager Charles Brown said it is a matter of pay now or pay later.
So far, the sewer spills have been limited to inside the sewer plant, and the state has not fined the town.
But if the spills continue the town could face costly fines, Brown said.
The project and design have received both state and federal approval, Brown said.
"It (project) includes emergency bypass pumps at the plant," Brown said. "It includes force mains, which when we have excess flow during heavy rains, it will actually pump water up to the 5-million-gallon upset pond where it can be held until the rain subsides, and then we can bring it back through the plant and treat it.
"It also changes screening in the plant. Right now we are having trouble getting water out to the spray fields because of the size of the screens. Those will be modified. But the main thing is being able to handle that heavy flow when we are getting rain of 5 inches an hour. That extra emergency pump will be able to kick in and handle that water so that we don't have a sewer spill."
During that same meeting, the board also approved an agreement with the state Department of Transportation allowing the state to relocate a water line that runs under Country Club Road at U.S. 117 South just north of town.
The state is planning to build an interchange at the intersection and the water line would be under the footing for the planned overpass.
Brown said prompt action was needed because the state wants to begin the interchange project in July.
The DOT would pay the cost of the $150,000 project to move the 6-inch water line south of its current location, Brown said.
An interchange will be built as well at U.S. 117 and O'Berry Road at Dudley as part of the effort to upgrade U.S. 117 to freeway status and eventually Interstate status.
The goal of Wayne County leadership is to extend Interstate 795 from Goldsboro south along the U.S. 117 corridor to Interstate 40 in Sampson County just west of Faison.