Published: November 03, 2009 07:59 am      

CLERE: Grant will boost entire community

Federal stimulus money is flowing into Georgetown. As a result, the town’s sewage will stop flowing down the hill to New Albany. It’s a big win for both communities - and a benefit to the rest of Floyd County and Southern Indiana.

Last Wednesday, I announced a $3.5 million federal stimulus grant for Georgetown to build a wastewater treatment plant. I started pursuing the grant more than six months ago. That was in early spring, when hopes of receiving stimulus money were sprouting everywhere.

Now it’s fall, and the landscape is sparse, with many communities disappointed in their lack of success in reaping federal largesse.

I got behind Georgetown’s project because I saw it as a good way to leverage stimulus money for maximum benefit to my entire district, which includes most of Floyd County and a small part of Clark County.

Georgetown was a worthy applicant on its own, but there were many worthy applicants that didn’t receive funding. The additional benefits to New Albany and the rest of Floyd County and Southern Indiana made Georgetown’s project really stand out.

Georgetown does not have its own wastewater treatment plant. It contracts with New Albany for treatment, an arrangement that has become increasingly undesirable for both communities in recent years. Georgetown has 1,200 sewer customers and, under its contract with New Albany, can pump up to 226,000 gallons per day to New Albany.

With its own plant, Georgetown will no longer have to depend on New Albany, and New Albany will be free to pursue economic development, which has been limited by a lack of available treatment capacity.

New Albany will have the opportunity to generate millions of dollars in revenue from sewer tap-in fees. The resulting economic development will benefit New Albany and the rest of Southern Indiana for years to come. In addition, Floyd County had committed to help out with the cost of building a plant for Georgetown. Now that won’t be necessary, and every Floyd County taxpayer is off the hook.

Meanwhile, Georgetown’s sewer rates will decrease slightly, even after the cost of the new plant is taken into consideration. According to an analysis by an accounting firm, the average household’s monthly bill, based on 4,000 gallons, will decrease from $64.93 to $64.30. If the town had instead issued bonds to finance the new plant, the average bill would have increased to $81.85 to cover the cost of the debt service.

Many families use more than the average and already pay $100 or more per month. That’s bad enough; they certainly couldn’t afford to pay any more. The stimulus grant will save Georgetown residents from the financial burden of infrastructure improvements, and it helps prepare Georgetown for its own future economic growth.

I’ve received a lot of thanks and congratulations for securing the stimulus grant, but I would be remiss not to acknowledge others who helped make it possible. Sewage doesn’t flow along political lines, and I was pleased to be able to work with many other officials of both parties to make this happen.

Georgetown Town Council President Billy Stewart, a Democrat, played a key role and joined me in announcing the grant. We were in a room filled with Republicans and Democrats at the New Albany office of Georgetown Town Attorney D.A. Andrews, without whom there would have been no grant. Long before the stimulus came along, Stewart, Andrews and many other town and county officials were working hard to find a way to build a Georgetown plant.

Many issues had to be resolved in order to make Georgetown eligible for stimulus funding. Among other problems, Georgetown was bogged down in a legal dispute with Capitol Engineering, Inc., a subsidiary of Jeffersonville-based Hughes Group, Inc. with which Georgetown had contracted in 2006 to construct a plant. Because the town was unable to obtain the required zoning for the original site, construction was delayed indefinitely. Capitol had already completed design work and purchased equipment for the plant.

Georgetown and Capitol officials were skeptical - even resistant - when I brought them to the table to try to work out their differences. I helped them understand it was in their mutual interest to set aside the past and take advantage of the stimulus opportunity. The legal dispute went away, and now Capitol will build and operate the new plant on a site at the western edge of town.

By continuing under the existing, long-delayed contract with Capitol, we were able to streamline the process and position the project to be shovel ready, which made it eligible for stimulus funding.

The proper name for the federal stimulus is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It will distribute approximately $125 million to the Indiana State Revolving Fund, a program managed by the Indiana Finance Authority, an agency of state government. The finance authority makes money available to communities for wastewater and drinking water projects.

I disagree with much of the federal government’s approach to stimulating the economy, but if the feds are handing out money, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure we get our fair share in Southern Indiana.

It’s still fall, and the harvest isn’t over.