Charlestown utility manager asks Jefferson County schools to back water, wastewater and reclaimed-water corridor to serve South Jefferson Elementary

Paul Mantello, who introduced himself as “Paul Mantello, I’m the new general manager of the Charlestown Utility Board,” urged the Jefferson County Board of Education to support a 5.3-mile utility corridor along Summit Point Road that would bring potable water, wastewater and reclaimed water past South Jefferson Elementary and to the nearby Summit Point Motorsports Park. Mantello said the corridor could also serve a proposed data center adjacent to the motorsports park and described multiple potential benefits: more reliable service for the school, improved fire flow, reclaimed-water irrigation and new local economic activity.

Mantello told the board that property owners currently on well and septic “will not be forced to connect,” except in cases of contaminated groundwater or failing systems where public health may require connection. He said CTUB will pursue preliminary engineering and grant funding in parallel with developers and that the presence of three end users (school, motorsports park, data center) makes the corridor financially feasible. “Reclaimed water, is about 0.333 the cost of potable water,” Mantello said, noting reclaimed water’s reuse potential for irrigation or industrial cooling.

Board members expressed cautious support for securing service to South Jefferson Elementary while resisting an open-ended endorsement of a broader corridor or the data center. One board member said the board should “talk to the lawyer first” before endorsing anything that appears to support projects outside the school system’s direct scope. The chair directed the board’s attorney and staff to draft a narrowly focused letter that affirms support for CTUB efforts to provide service to South Jefferson Elementary and to present that draft at the board’s next meeting for formal approval.

Next steps Mantello outlined include completing a preliminary engineering report, pursuing grant applications to offset on-site connection costs, and coordinating with county partners and CTUB’s board. Mantello said CTUB’s Tuscaloosa plant will add capacity this fiscal year and that the permanent capacity when fully built out is about 500,000 gallons per day, which CTUB can use in coordination with its Charlestown treatment capabilities.