HOLTS SUMMIT, Mo. - With construction already underway, the Holts Summit Board of Alderman unanimously approved the financing for a new sewer administration building and motor pool during Monday night's meeting.
The facility, located just past the end of Crest Avenue on the east side of town, will house both the departments offices and their vehicles. Rick Hess, the city administrator for Holts Summit, said the building was sorely needed due to the city's expanding sewer system and the currently overflowing offices.
"The sewer people are currently co-located with the streets and parks guys, and they are really crammed in there," said Hess. "We decided that the sewer people needed their own place."
Hess said the new facility is designed with the sewer department in mind, and includes places for them to dump their trucks and clean off their vehicles, all while sheltering the vehicles from the elements and containing any run-off waste.
The facility will be paid for exclusively thorough revenue from sewer customers, who will not experience a rate change due to this decision.
"Their rates are set and concrete," Hess said. "This will not raise rates."
The Board of Alderman decided to finance the construction through a certificate of participation, which is similar to a lease purchase and involves paying interest to a bank or lending company. The city could have funded the bulk of the building through it's cash reserves Hess said, but that would run the risk of leaving the city vulnerable.
"If we had paid for in now, we would not have enough money to cover a disaster," Hess said. "It would leave us in a very exposed position."
Alderman Chamberlin was apprehensive during the meeting, expressing his reluctance to have the first, second and final passage of the bill in only one night. Hess explained this was done in order to secure a lower interest rate.
"Interest rates are on the rise," Hess said. "The current rate is 3.8 percent, but if we had waited to have a second reading in another month, the rate probably would have changed for the worse."
The sewer maintenance facility is part of a larger project to update Holt Summit's sewer system. Plans are underway to connect the eastern section of the city, which has it's own sewer treatment facility, to the western half, which pumps all of its waste to Jefferson City for treatment.
"The treatment facility is aging," Hess said. "Once the new sewer main is in place, we can take the facility offline. At that point it will only be used as an overflow basin in case of a major rainstorm."
Also of note was a resolution approving the hiring of Shannon Jeffries as assistant chief of police. His hiring was approved by a unanimous vote. The next meeting of the Holts Summit Board of Alderman will be at
6:30 p.m. Feb. 9.