Greene County staff outlines plan to manage $3 million wastewater grant and four-year asset transition

County staff presented a plan at a Greene County Board of Commissioners meeting to manage a $3,000,000 Community Development Block Grant intended to fund wastewater work and to transition Maury Sanitary District assets to county ownership over a four-year period.

The staff presentation said the grant funds are earmarked for work tied to “both Fifth and Oak Ridge and Morey Center District,” including improvements at the existing treatment plant. The proposal described an agreement that would permit the county to manage the grant project and operate the treatment capacity during a four-year transition, after which ownership, operation and maintenance of the district’s facilities, customers, physical equipment and cash on hand would transfer to the county.

“...at the end of 4 years, their water and sanitary sewer assets transitioned completely over to the county for ownership operation and maintenance, and that will include their facilities, their customers, their physical equipment, includes cash on hand, includes everything they got,” the staff member said.

The staff member said the plan is intended to preserve service capacity and allow current district employees to reach retirement tenure while the county hires or certifies personnel to run the plant. “This allows the transition to allow their current employees to to, you know, reach the tenure of where they feel comfortable to retire,” the staff member said. The presentation described the arrangement as a “win-win,” but did not record a formal action by the board to adopt the agreement at this meeting.

Commissioner Johnson was acknowledged in the discussion for assisting with negotiations between the county and the Maury Sanitary District board, the staff member said. The presentation also noted that, if the county approves the agreement, the county must fully execute the local agreement and submit it to the state to satisfy grant conditions.

No formal vote to approve the transition agreement or to execute the grant conditions was recorded in the transcript excerpt of this item. The staff member closed by offering to take questions and by noting follow-up steps needed to finalize the arrangement with the state.

Background and next steps: the county presentation framed the approach as a county-managed implementation of a federal/state block grant with a four-year operational transition of a sanitary district’s assets. County staff said the agreement would reserve the treatment capacity for county use during the transition, ensure continuity of service for district customers and include transfer of employees and assets at the end of the period. Further formal board action and execution of documents with the state were described as remaining steps before the transfer could occur.