Editorial: Town Hall is a chance to get informed

The Clarendon City Council has some big decisions to make in the weeks ahead, and its members are asking for your input on how they should proceed.

At issue is the town’s aging infrastructure… a theme that is plaguing cities, states, and even the federal government. Roads, bridges, and other things often take a toll from time and the elements. Systems that were built 50, 75, or 100 years ago are now extremely costly to replace compared to their original price tag, and finding money for those upgrades is a challenge.

Clarendon’s street woes are well known, although there has been some progress over the last ten years or so. But the water system is largely out of view and out of mind until a problem starts coming out of your tap.

Many residents for a few years now have been suffering from discolored water. City officials say the culprit for this is miles of cast iron distribution pipes installed about a hundred years ago that are rusting. As long as the water flows well, the color doesn’t have time to set up. But when your service is at the end of the line or in an area that doesn’t flow well, you get can get some pretty nasty looking water.

The city proposes to install about six miles of new distribution lines to improve water quality and solve the red water issue.

The city also notes that it is out of compliance with the state’s requirement for elevated storage because the east standpipe has been taken out of service. The city’s engineer is recommending a new standpipe be constructed on the east side of town to be equal in height to the one on the west side of town.

City Hall would also like to replace the current water meters throughout Clarendon with modern auto-read meters – devices that would use modern technology to measure water usage and a radio signal to transmit those readings to a computer.

The benefit, the city says, is twofold. First, it takes city workers about one week a month to read the almost 900 water meters that are in the ground, which is lost productivity for those men. Secondly, the old mechanical water meters become less efficient over time to the point that they may now 20 percent off in their accuracy. That’s water the city is having to pay Greenbelt Water Authority for but is not able to bill its customers for.

The cost of all these improvements will be about $3.9 million, and city officials are proposing to pay for this with a USDA Rural Development Grant/Loan. The grant amount will be $1.387 million and the loan amount would be $2.522 million.

Now comes the kicker, the loan would take 40 years to pay off at 2.5 percent interest and with an annual payment of about $100,500. To pay that, the city could look at any combination of revenue increases, but the simplest way to look at it – and probably the fairest solution – would be to add $10 per month to everyone’s water bill.

The 40 years is a bitter pill for sure. Who borrows money on a 40-year term? This is not just something that affects us today. Your children and grandchildren will be paying for this, so everyone needs to be sure they understand what’s being done.

Are there drawbacks to the project? Certainly. Any project of this size will come with inconveniences and disruptions to a town’s normal routine. That’s to be expected. There is also the question of how many brick streets may have to be disturbed to install the new lines and how those streets will be put back.

Are there alternatives to funding? In the past, Clarendon has been able to use Community Development Block Grants to replace water lines. Those are federal funds that pass through the state. A few years ago, CDBG money mostly paid for the west standpipe. But city officials say that type of grant money could likely get more scarce or even disappear altogether in the future. They therefore prefer a go-big-and-get-‘er-done approach, noting that it is more economical in the long run. Otherwise, the city could end up paying more for the same work in the long run.

If the USDA grant/loan is what the citizens want to do, then that’s great. But if that’s not what they want to do, then the city needs to know that.

This is why your City Council is having the Town Hall next Tuesday, March 29, at 7 p.m. in the Bairfield Activity Center. This is the citizens’ chance to learn about the project first hand, to ask questions, and to let your thoughts be known. If you have an opinion… or you’re going to have an opinion, take the time to go to the meeting so that your opinion is fully informed.