Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Infrastructure Bonds topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Greene County authorizes $41.5M bond appropriation, awards reservoir construction contracts
Summary
The Board approved a $41.5 million supplemental appropriation for water and sewer revenue bonds, noted lower-than-expected borrowing costs that reduce projected debt service, and awarded construction contracts for reservoir components after bid reviews and value‑engineering.
Greene County supervisors voted to appropriate up to $41.5 million in water and sewer revenue bond proceeds and approved multiple contract awards for the county’s reservoir and related water infrastructure projects.
County finance staff reported the October bond sale drew eight competitive bids and produced a low true interest rate of about 4.17 percent (an all‑in borrowing rate around 4.24 percent). Miss Shaffer said the result is substantially better than prior planning assumptions and will translate to lower debt service: roughly $13.9 million less over the life of the bonds and about $460,000 less per year once principal payments begin, compared with earlier projections.
Following the appropriation, the Board approved recommended contract awards for key project components. For Division 2 (the raw water main) staff recommended awarding the work to Commonwealth Excavating at a low bid of approximately $5.3 million. For Division 3 (the raw water intake and pump station), the low bid from English Construction was $18.44 million; after a value‑engineering review the recommended award was $16.917 million.
Board members discussed construction constraints including river‑work permitting windows (winter months), a deep excavation in rock for the intake/pump station, and the need for sheet piling to stabilize the excavation. Staff noted those technical complexities help explain the contract pricing.
Separately, the Board authorized up to $1.0 million to proceed with design, permitting and construction work on Well Number 2 at Greene County Park (a well drilled in 2009 with a capacity cited at about 80 gallons per minute) and directed staff to begin VDH permitting and bid‑document updates so the project can proceed in time to address drought resilience.
What’s next: staff will finalize contract documents and execute awards with the recommended bidders and will return any final amendments to the Board as required by procurement rules; the county will also complete permitting steps for reservoir and well projects.
