County eyes merging Goldsboro, Fremont, Eureka sewers
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 18, 2017 5:50 AM
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday will consider approval of an engineering agreement with Freese and Nichols Inc. for the Wayne County Sewer Merger/Regional Feasibility Study.
Commissioners agreed to the contract in July pending negotiations on the cost.
The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources has allocated $50,000 to Wayne County to serve as the facilitator for the grant to look at the possibility of merging the sewer systems of Fremont, Eureka and Goldsboro.
The company has said it can do the work for that amount.
The meeting will get underway at 8 a.m. with an agenda briefing followed by the formal session at 9 a.m. Both will be held in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex.
Commissioners will recess at noon so that they can meet with the Wayne County Agricultural Advisory Board at the Wayne Center.
The motion will be to authorize Chairman Bill Pate and the Clerk to the Board Carl Bowden to execute the engineering agreement with the company.
The North Carolina Local Government Commission has awarded Wayne County a $50,000 grant to study ways to reduce that burden.
The Local Government Commission wanted to see what might be feasible and if the parties involved were willing to move forward.
The non-binding feasibility study could take up to six months.
It will examine the possible consolidation of the Fremont/Eureka sewer systems and the possible merger of Goldsboro, Fremont, Eureka and Wayne County sewer systems.
The potential costs of rates, long-term rates, infrastructure needs and its potential effect on Goldsboro and Wayne County will be examined as well.
The company will look at assets and the infrastructure of all the systems.
Freese and Nichols Inc. will partner with Raftelis Financial Consultants of Cary to do the financial piece of the project that will look at rates and capital funding needs.
Once the study is completed all of the parties will meet to work out what the next steps will be. The process will include public meetings.
Also on Tuesday's agenda are motions to:
* Approve additional operations policies for the Maxwell Center as recommended by James Wade Jr., center director, and Assistant County Manager Craig Honeycutt.
* Set the retail pricing for the brick pavers campaign at the Maxwell Center.
* Authorize Wood to bid out the work for the welding component of the Advanced Manufacturing Center and enter into a memorandum of understanding with Wayne Community College.
* Declare a building surplus and authorize its demolition in order to expand the parking lot at the Senior Center. It is the building that the county used to lease to Wayne Crisis Pregnancy Center.
* Approve the demolition of four properties jointly owned with the city of Goldsboro as requested by the city.
In other business:
* Tammy Schrenker, the new director of the Department of Social Services, will be introduced.
* George Williams will talk about the annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinner.
* Wayne County Public Library Director Donna Phillips will make a presentation on the Student Access Initiative.
* The new county update video from the N.C. Association of County Commissioners will be shown.
Consent agenda items include: Applications for Disabled Veteran Exclusion, for Elderly or Disabled Exclusion and for Property Tax Exclusion; budget amendments; and motion to approve resolution to allow Hale Artificier Inc. to use pyrotechnics on Oct. 21 at the Wayne County Fairgrounds.
Public comments will start at 9:05 a.m. Speakers will have four minutes to comment on their topic of choice.