New Plymouth passes water bond
By Jennifer Colton - Argus Observer
Thursday, May 24, 2007 2:32 PM PDT
New Plymouth - Voters in New Plymouth overwhelmingly passed two critical infrastructure measures Tuesday night and now the city will move forward with a plan to take out two revenue bonds to pay for the water and sewer improvement projects.
The final vote tally showed 195 residents voted in favor of the water revenue bond while 10 voted against it. The sewer revenue bond harvested 185 “yes” votes and 18 “no” votes.
The New Plymouth City Council held a special meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday night to canvas the public votes and place the two official resolutions on the books declaring the results of the election. New Plymouth Mayor Scott Moscrip, three New Plymouth City Council members, the city clerk and one member of the public attended the special meeting.
“I was really overwhelmed at the support that the bond resolution received,” New Plymouth Mayor Scott Moscrip said Wednesday. “I am unaware of any other bond relating to water and sewer infrastructure that has passed by so great a margin.”
The two projects originated from a section in the federal Clean Water Act fashioned during the Clinton administration in 2000 that changed the acceptable levels of arsenic in city drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10 ppb.
The New Plymouth water system averages around 12 ppb, Moscrip has said, prompting the city to build a blending water system — drilling a new well that tests at “nondetect” levels for arsenic and mixing that with the current city water — costing around $3 million. The other alternative, to construct a water treatment facility that could cost $15 million, was discarded by city officials in favor of the water blending mechanism.
The city expects to receive at least $70,000 — 30 percent of the project cost — in federal grant money for the project, Moscrip has said.
City water and sewer rates increased with the May bills in order to cover the revenue bonds and would have increased again if either bond failed.
“I’m really grateful for the support of the citizens and their confidence in us at the city and the hard work we’ve put in over the last three years,” Moscrip said. “This will help us comply with the law and allow the city to move on and focus on other things than arsenic.”
