Council approves Greenwood upgrades, maintenance facility and related wastewater contracts

The City Council on May 1 approved a set of measures advancing wastewater infrastructure: acceptance of a roughly $15 million grant to address flooding and resiliency at the Greenwood and Oso plants, award of a construction contract for the Greenwood Wastewater Treatment Plant, and approval of a new wastewater maintenance building intended to centralize storage, fabrication and training operations.

Council members and staff framed the actions as part of a multi-year effort to meet federal consent-decree obligations and to reduce long-term operating costs by expanding the city’s preventive-maintenance capability. Wesley Nevgan, director of water systems infrastructure, told council the maintenance building will consolidate pumps, blowers, spare parts and workspaces now stored across multiple sites and outdoors, allow more in-house electrical and fabrication work, and provide classroom space for required safety and technical training.

The council discussed cost and timing. Staff said the full project budget for the maintenance building totals about $8.4 million; approximately $6 million had already been encumbered in the capital improvement program and roughly $2.5 million remained to be appropriated, a figure the administration said would add about 3 cents per year to the average residential wastewater bill. Nevgan said the building will house about 51 employees who work across wastewater operations and that up to 20–25 people may be onsite at a given time. Construction was projected to take a little over a year if approved.

Council members expressed differing views. Several members, including Gil Hernandez, said they were concerned about borrowing and rate impacts and voted against the maintenance building; others argued the project is an investment that preserves hundreds of millions in system assets and reduces future costs. City Manager Peter Zanoni and other council members said owning and outfitting a purpose-built facility will be cheaper than long-term leasing and will improve workforce retention and safety.

Separately, council approved a resolution awarding a construction contract for upgrades at the Greenwood Wastewater Treatment Plant. Staff said the Greenwood project will convert anaerobic processes to aerobic treatment over the course of construction, a change intended to reduce odors and modernize the plant. Wesley Nevgan and Jeff Edmonds, director of engineering services, told the council that some elements of the treatment conversion could be put into service about a year into the project rather than waiting for full completion. Staff said the broader Greenwood project is planned as a larger multi-year investment to address long-standing operational limits at the plant.

The council also approved acceptance and appropriation of a state grant from the Texas General Land Office of about $15,000,000 to mitigate historical flooding at Greenwood and to add onsite power generation capacity where needed. Nevgan said Greenwood has experienced pump-room inundation and that the grant work will address pump-room flood risks and add resiliency, including a standalone generator if needed.

Staff repeatedly linked the package to the city’s ongoing consent-decree work. Zanoni and staff said preventive maintenance and better inventory control reduce the likelihood of permit violations and expensive emergency repairs. Zanoni noted that much of the city’s capital program was planned years in advance; he and water staff emphasized that delaying projects increases cost due to construction inflation and supply constraints.

Votes at the dais were recorded as “motion carries” in the public record; the transcript does not give a roll-call tally in the meeting minutes for each motion. Council discussion and public comment covered funding sources (revenue bonds and wastewater rates), alternative options such as leasing or smaller facilities, timing of the Greenwood treatment conversion and the relationship between grant funding and larger treatment upgrades. Staff committed to provide a consent‑decree status and expenditure summary to council on request.

The council instructed staff to proceed with the awarded contracts and grant acceptance so design and construction can move forward. The work is part of a broader multi-year capital program city staff said is aimed at modernizing utilities and avoiding future emergency repairs.