Chandler to use revenue bonds to pay for treatment-plant upgrades
“At this time, my understanding is that we have handed this over to our financial advisor,” City Council member Gene Giger said. “He will shop for the best interest rate available.”
The city’s financial advisor is RBC Capital Markets of San Antonio. It has not answered questions from the newspaper about its relationship with City Hall.
During a meeting on Aug. 17, the city reversed itself and approved a resolution to use revenue bonds, which are paid for by revenue generated by water and sewer rates.
Certificates of obligation are bonds issued without voter approval. A resolution approved on July 13 called 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.
Chandler wanted to use certificates of obligation because those bonds are paid for a combination of utility revenue and ad valorem taxes.
The city was scheduled to issue the certificates during a meeting on Tuesday. But a petition signed by 221 Chandler residents and filed by Howard Taliaferro to block the issuance without a bond election forced the city to rethink how it should finance the construction of a second clarifer and other work at the treatment plant.
The most critical needs at the treatment plant — installing the clarifier and repairing a lift station — are expected to cost about $900,000. Other work related to those projects, and expenses such as legal and engineering fees, could raise costs by at least another $100,000.
A December report by Everett Griffith, Jr. & Associates report calls the treatment plant “a disaster waiting to happen.”
“This plant has only one clarifier which is a disaster waiting to happen,” the report says.
“In the event the clarifi- er becomes disabled, the treatment process would be affected causing an excursion of the discharge permit parameters 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.”
In an Aug. 10 letter to Chandler water customers, city administrator Jim Moffeit warned that Chandler would face daily fines from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality if the city’s treatment plant was inoperable, and that the strain on workers and to infrastructure to prevent raw waste from entering Lake Palestine may be severe.
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.
Taliaferro’s petition would have forced officials to call an election for Nov. 2 at the earliest — the same day on which the Brownsboro Independent School District is expected to place two propositions on the ballot for its bond election. City Council members feared that scenario could have spelled failure for both elections.
Giger said that following the Aug. 17 meeting in which the resolution to issue revenue bonds was approved, he and several others gathered outside City Hall to talk about the decision.
“About six or eight citizens and I met outside council chambers and had what I consider a very productive discussion,” he said. “I feel that there was an open dialog between myself and those citizens. Not everything was settled, and not all questions were answered to everyone’s satisfaction, but we talked in a civil manner. I applaud those citizens who took the time to come to the meeting and those who took the time to visit with me personally.”
Separately, Chandler on Aug. 10 raised base rates for water and sewer customers. For water, the rate increases to $18.50 from $15. The sewer rate increases to $20 from $17.50.
