More than 200 signatures have been obtained on a petition to force Chandler into a bond election to finance improvements at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, Howard Taliaferro said.

“And I still have plenty of time. I know (city offi- cials) don’t want this, but it will be turned in this week. I needed 5 percent of 1,881 registered voters, so I’ve got more than enough.”

Chandler will issue $1.3 million in certificates of obligation after adopting an ordinance on Aug. 24 if Taliaferro does not file the petition or enough signatures are found to be invalid to render the petition void.

Certificates of obligation are bonds issued without voter approval. The resolution approved during a council meeting on July 13 calls for payment of the certifi cates “from the levy and collection of ad valorem taxes ... and from a pledge of surplus revenues of the city’s waterworks and sewer system.”

Taliaferro said neither the certificates of obligation nor a bond election would be necessary if the city in April hadn’t purchased almost 30 acres of eventual park land near Martin Street from utilities superintendent Stanley McCurley.

He received a $200,000 down payment in the transaction. The remaining $385,000 will be paid at 6 percent over the next 10 years.

If the city satisfies the debt in five years, the earlypayoff penalty would be about $18,000.

“They should have never bought that (land),” Taliaferro said. “They should have used the money to pay for the sewer treatment plant. And that’s what people have told me, too. There’s some mad people.”

Early plans for the land include expanding Winchester Park with water features, walking paths and a disc-golf course. A government complex near Martin Street is also a consideration.

At the treatment plant, the most critical needs — installing a second clarifier at the plant and repairing a lift station — are expected to cost about $900,000. Other work related to those projects, and related expenses such as legal and engineering fees, could raise costs by at least another $100,000.

If successful, the Taliaferro’s petition would force officials to call an election for Nov. 2 — the same day on which the Brownsboro Independent School District is expected to place one or more propositions on the ballot for its bond election.

Chandler officials have warned residents that forcing an election could have severe consequences, saying the city cannot wait it out while the treatment plant faces possible “disaster.”

The Everett Griffith, Jr. & Associates report suggests the same.

“This plant has only one clarifier which is a disaster waiting to happen,” the report says. “In the event the clarifier becomes disabled, the treatment process would be affected causing an excursion of the discharge permit paramaters which could result in fines from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

“Also, human health and safety could be in jeopardy and the environment negatively impacted.”

The plant off Noonday Road operates with a clarifier, oxidation ditch, screener, chlorine-contact chamber and drying bed. The city wants to add a second clarifier so that one can continue to run while work is performed on the other.

The single clarifier runs 24 hours a day, making it impossible for workers to perform maintenance on it.

The plant, the city’s second treatment facility, was built in the 1980s. It relies primarily on gravity-force sewer mains to deliver waste. In areas where that is not possible, five lift stations pump waste to the plant.

Once waste water is treated through a four-step process, the clean water is redistributed into Lake Palestine.

The plant is permitted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to treat 500,000 gallons of waste water per day.