Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Water Infrastructure topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Officials say Oklahoma Water Resources Board loans, partial forgiveness enable local water-line projects
Summary
At a Mayor and Board Commissioners meeting, commissioners discussed how loans and partial forgiveness from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) have funded recent local water-line and sewer projects, citing low interest rates and one-time forgiveness awards that reduced overall repayment amounts.
At a meeting of the Mayor and Board Commissioners, members discussed item 4.6, which reviewed the role of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board in funding municipal water-line and sewer projects.
The commissioners said the OWRB issues bonds and lends proceeds to cities and towns at lower interest rates than the private market, allowing local governments to replace aging water lines, repair sewers and undertake other infrastructure work. A commissioner described the state board as a “fantastic program” that has let the city borrow at rates well below what it would pay on the open market.
The discussion included recent local projects financed through the program. Commissioners said the city borrowed in multiple $1,000,000 increments for the Call Water Project and cited two recent water-line programs that together involved multimillion-dollar financing. Morali, a city staff member, said the loan-forgiveness portion of the program “is about 25% up to $1,000,000,” enabling the city to receive roughly $1,000,000 in forgiveness on each of the cited programs.
Commissioners and staff said one earlier package was about $4,000,000 and that another program was roughly $2 million to $3.5 million. Officials said portions of those packages included water-line replacements across subdivisions, and that a separate sanitary-sewer treatment plant improvement was completed in 2007 using a similar model.
The board members noted the program’s competitive interest rates. One commissioner said that by timing borrowing they achieved interest in the range of about 1.8%–1.89% on a past project, and that the same borrowing today would be materially more expensive. The commissioner added that the city benefits both from low rates and the forgiveness component; "you do have to pay it back," recalled Joe Freeman, a retired OWRB board member, when reminding meeting participants that loans remain repayable.
Speakers said the OWRB process typically involves presentations from city managers and mayors to the state board, and that staff vet projects before those presentations. Commissioners said the program allowed the city to respond quickly to recurring water problems in neighborhoods such as Southern Heights and to complete the Leona Mitchell water-line work as part of a larger financing package.
No formal vote or motion on item 4.6 was recorded in the transcript excerpt provided. Commissioners said the item was on the consent or agenda for that meeting and discussed the program’s benefits and limits, including the need to secure additional revenue or assistance to expand the work.
Officials left further technical details — including exact loan amounts per ordinance, final interest-rate lock dates, and precise total project costs — unspecified in the transcript.
