The Finance Committee approved a Water and Sewer Department bond for a total of $20 million at a 4.25% rate over 20 years that will cover repairs to the wastewater plant and the sewer infrastructure.

The need to borrow additional funds comes as the city’s American Recovery Act funds have been spent on sewer repair projects and the current water department bonds are set to be paid off in 2028.

“We would increase payments in 2026 and 2027, and then when it’s paid off in 2028, we would go back down to the level of 2026,” Mayor Joey Hobbs said.

The current bond was taken out in 2017, and the city pays $760,000 annually. The first $10 million of the new bond will amount to a similar annual payment. The second half of the bond will raise the annual payment to about $1.3 million in the four or fifth year.

Hobbs said that about $2 million will go to maintenance and repairs at the wastewater plant, about $4 million will go to repairing water distribution lines and about 60% will be used to address inflow and infiltration (I&I) in the sewer collection system. A $2 million contingency buffer is included as a “rainy day” fund to cover cost inflation.

Hobbs said the sewer line repairs will resolve a large portion of the sewer overflows that has plagued the system for years.

“Based on the weather and things, we are doing extremely well, and we’re down to one chronic manhole (overflow),” he said.

Ongoing video recording of the system has identified and rated about 260 points of I&I and the city is working to address those, according to Hobbs.

The bond will next go before the Water and Sewer Commission and then to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.