Commissioners revisit Western Sewer funding as city seeks to draw down pledged county funds

Commissioners used a board discussion to revisit the Western Sewer construction project and to clarify whether the city’s recent requests to draw down previously pledged funds require additional board approval.

A commissioner summarized the complex history: the county’s EDC and prior boards supported engineering work (the transcript cites roughly $568,000 for engineering in 2021), an initial project estimate of about $10 million grew substantially and the county previously approved CIP allocations that the city has relied upon. The manager said the city has requested county funds to cover construction-phase needs while it pursues additional state funding; if state allocations later materialize, "they may be in a position to reimburse potentially some of those funds to the county," the manager said, but the amount and timing remain uncertain.

The finance director and manager described the county’s approved CIP commitments totaling about $1,568,000 to the project and confirmed the city reported it is running ahead of schedule by several months. Commissioners asked whether an MOU or other formal reimbursement agreement exists; the record indicates no MOU was presented during the meeting and that reimbursement would be contingent on final state allocations and invoicing.