Norwich — The Norwich City Council on Dec. 15 approved two separate ordinances increasing the city's revenue-bond authorizations to fund major repairs and upgrades to two municipal water tanks.

Norwich Public Utilities general manager Chris LaRose told the council engineers' inspections and four years of inflation expanded the projects' scope, requiring higher appropriations to cover recoating, aeration/mixing systems and new pH and chlorine analyzers. The first ordinance increased authorization from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 for a tank aeration/mixing system at the Stanley Israelite Business Park; the council adopted it on a 7-0 roll-call vote. The second ordinance raised funding authority for the Antigua Water Tank from $2,400,000 to $5,200,000 and also passed 7-0.

LaRose said the projects were ready to proceed to bid early next year and emphasized urgency to secure Drinking Water State Revolving Fund grant support that currently may provide roughly 50% of eligible project costs. He described inspections and thickness testing that revealed additional patching and interior work were needed in several tanks now identified as producing higher levels of disinfection byproducts.

Council members asked about timing and rate impacts. LaRose said bids would be issued in January and construction would take place next year. He said financing would rely on the state's drinking-water loan program, described in the hearing as a 20-year loan at about 2% with an expected 50% grant on eligible costs. Asked whether the average residential customer would see a change of about $0.91 per month, LaRose characterized that as a higher, conservative estimate and said a "worst-case" allocation averaged across some customer classes would be about $0.31 per month; he added that many residential users would experience significantly less than that amount because costs are apportioned by usage class.

Bond counsel for the city and NPU was available to answer technical questions about the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and loan terms. No members of the public spoke in opposition during the hearings.

The council's formal roll calls recorded unanimous adoption of both ordinances.

What happens next: With council approval, NPU will proceed to bid the projects and seek the identified state grants. LaRose said the utility will complete a more detailed cost-of-service analysis next fall to set rates over the following three-year rate track.