Synopsis of Novembers 2014 Meeting.
Thank You Angela
Hello everyone,
I hope that you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and are staying warm in this snowy weather!
A few of us were able to attend last week's Water & Sewer Committee meeting, and I thought it would be helpful if I shared some of the discussion with you as things are starting to move along some, it seems. (I have attached these notes as a Word document as well, in case that's easier to read.)
All in all, the discussion seemed positive (from our point of view) in that the committee decided to:
1) Have Joe (the engineer) look at four or five other sites, some of them suggested by community members, and see if any of these meet the hydrologic, geologic, etc. specifications for a treatment facility. The Oronoco City Council will have to vote to approve Joe doing this work as he will need to get paid additional monies to do it. The Water & Sewer Committee representative will put it on the December agenda for City Council.
2) They mentioned that the Pine Island mayor had approached the Oronoco mayor about collaborating on a project to be led by a University of Minnesota graduate student between January and May 2015. The student’s project would look at the feasibility of Pine Island and Oronoco going in together on a joint wastewater treatment facility. The cities are just waiting to hear whether the student received a grant to pay for this work. It sounds as if they might know by the end of November/beginning of December.
3) The committee members also discussed the need to engage Pine Island further in order to find out what the rate structure would be should Oronoco hook up to their new facility, what PI’s timeline is for building a new facility, etc. At this point, the committee felt that they should be following two paths simultaneously: building Oronoco’s own plant and also going in with Pine Island, so everything remains on the table for now. Joe did mention that the cost difference between the two projects would be only around 10%.
4) The main problem for Oronoco is that there is no enough money from existing sources available to complete the Oronoco project. Because of that, Joe recommended that the City begin to engage with state government representatives and senators and start lobbying them for support. He suggested that the City may even consider hiring a lobbyist to work on its behalf. 2016 is the next bonding year, at which time a representative could introduce bonding legislation that would help pay for the treatment plant. However, they think they should start forging those relationships and lobbying in 2015. They need to have a very clear plan in mind before they can do it, though, and they are not at this point. Also, they have five years from now to complete the project. This is the length of time the Minnesota Pollution Agency has granted the City a reprieve from city residents upgrading, etc. their septic systems. (There is no sense in having them put in new septic systems if they are going to hook up with a sewage system in five years.)
· We can keep in mind that residents can also lobby against a proposal that we don’t like, should it come to that point.
5) The committee did acknowledge that it seemed as if the state government folks who attended the October meeting were more in favor of a regional solution (i.e., partnering with Pine Island) than Oronoco doing it on its own.
6) There will be no December meeting due to the holidays.
Happy Holidays!
Angela
I hope that you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and are staying warm in this snowy weather!
A few of us were able to attend last week's Water & Sewer Committee meeting, and I thought it would be helpful if I shared some of the discussion with you as things are starting to move along some, it seems. (I have attached these notes as a Word document as well, in case that's easier to read.)
All in all, the discussion seemed positive (from our point of view) in that the committee decided to:
1) Have Joe (the engineer) look at four or five other sites, some of them suggested by community members, and see if any of these meet the hydrologic, geologic, etc. specifications for a treatment facility. The Oronoco City Council will have to vote to approve Joe doing this work as he will need to get paid additional monies to do it. The Water & Sewer Committee representative will put it on the December agenda for City Council.
2) They mentioned that the Pine Island mayor had approached the Oronoco mayor about collaborating on a project to be led by a University of Minnesota graduate student between January and May 2015. The student’s project would look at the feasibility of Pine Island and Oronoco going in together on a joint wastewater treatment facility. The cities are just waiting to hear whether the student received a grant to pay for this work. It sounds as if they might know by the end of November/beginning of December.
3) The committee members also discussed the need to engage Pine Island further in order to find out what the rate structure would be should Oronoco hook up to their new facility, what PI’s timeline is for building a new facility, etc. At this point, the committee felt that they should be following two paths simultaneously: building Oronoco’s own plant and also going in with Pine Island, so everything remains on the table for now. Joe did mention that the cost difference between the two projects would be only around 10%.
4) The main problem for Oronoco is that there is no enough money from existing sources available to complete the Oronoco project. Because of that, Joe recommended that the City begin to engage with state government representatives and senators and start lobbying them for support. He suggested that the City may even consider hiring a lobbyist to work on its behalf. 2016 is the next bonding year, at which time a representative could introduce bonding legislation that would help pay for the treatment plant. However, they think they should start forging those relationships and lobbying in 2015. They need to have a very clear plan in mind before they can do it, though, and they are not at this point. Also, they have five years from now to complete the project. This is the length of time the Minnesota Pollution Agency has granted the City a reprieve from city residents upgrading, etc. their septic systems. (There is no sense in having them put in new septic systems if they are going to hook up with a sewage system in five years.)
· We can keep in mind that residents can also lobby against a proposal that we don’t like, should it come to that point.
5) The committee did acknowledge that it seemed as if the state government folks who attended the October meeting were more in favor of a regional solution (i.e., partnering with Pine Island) than Oronoco doing it on its own.
6) There will be no December meeting due to the holidays.
Happy Holidays!
Angela
