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Council approves $72M water and sewer financing, authorizes infrastructure projects and AMI meters
Summary
Georgetown council approved a general bond ordinance and a Series 2025A water and sewer revenue bond (approximately $72.03 million) to finance treatment-plant upgrades, a south-side storage tank, AMI meter roll-out and a major interceptor sewer replacement; vote counts were 6–1 on each ordinance.
Georgetown City Council on Nov. 10 approved a financing package intended to pay for major water and sewer upgrades, including a planned advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) rollout, PFAS treatment planning and replacement of a downtown interceptor.
The council adopted a first amended and restated general bond ordinance and then a Series 2025A water and sewer revenue bond ordinance authorizing roughly $72,030,000 in aggregate principal (the amount may be adjusted by up to about 10%). The bond ordinance lists project uses that include a south-side storage tank, AMI meter-system upgrades and the Deshaix/Water Street trunk sewer upgrades. The ordinances passed after roll-call votes, each by 6–1 (one member opposed).
Finance Director Jeff Nutter said the utility received an AA3 rating from Moody’s Investor Services for the offering. “We received our rating today from Moody’s Investor Services. We received an AA3 rating, which is exactly what we were expecting,” Nutter said. The city’s financing team plans to sell the bonds at a public competitive sale with expected interest in the mid-4% range; the issue will be callable after 10 years.
Utility staff described technical and regulatory drivers for the work. Chase, a Georgetown Municipal Water & Sewer representative, outlined two priorities: addressing long-standing taste-and-odor events tied to the Royal Spring source and meeting an upcoming federal/state standard for PFAS. He said the utility is piloting carbon treatment that serves both goals and hopes to use settlement and state grant funds to cover PFAS-related treatment so “we can implement these treatment processes with no impact to our customers, no impact to rates.”
Council discussion included a call from one member to pause before committing to large long-term borrowing to address a broader erosion of public trust in the water company’s oversight. The motion to table the ordinance failed for lack of a second; the measures then passed.
Officials said the bond proceeds will also help fund the Deshaix/Water Street interceptor project, already bid and recommended for award, and provide seed money for the AMI program that will allow near-daily customer usage views and automatic leak alerts once implemented. The ordinance caps any stated interest rate on the bonds at 7% per annum.
What happens next: the city will post a preliminary official statement, take bids and close the financing; utility staff said design and procurement work for AMI, carbon treatment and the Deshaix project will proceed in parallel.
