State awards funding for Park County’s septic project, Powell’s HVAC upgrades

Another $3.1 million in federal aid will soon flow to Park County to help improve some HVAC systems in Powell, a sewage treatment plant in Cody for rural residents, and a water treatment plant in Meeteetse. However, an attempt by the City of Cody to replace old water mains was passed over.

The funds, which come from the Federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), were awarded by the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) on February 27-28. The SLIB had $50 million available for capital projects proposed by cities, townships, counties, and tribal councils. In the end, 97 applications were received, demanding a total of 180 million US dollars.

Sorting the requests meant scoring them using a system that took into account the size and median income of the population served by the project (the smaller the better), the percentage of the cost borne by the applicant (the higher , the better), considered. and, among some other considerations, how many ARPA dollars they had already received (the fewer the better). To qualify, each proposal had to “address identifiable harm caused or aggravated by COVID-19.”

Higher priority was given to eligible projects not related to water or sanitation, which boosted the City of Powell’s bid. The city’s request for $420,000 for HVAC-related work was among a small handful that topped the list and were approved without debate. Powell’s project – which would go ahead regardless of whether the state paid for it – involves replacing and upgrading the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems at City Hall, the Powell Police Department and The Commons.

Meanwhile, the city of Meeteetse’s $671,008 application for upgrading water treatment facilities also received a quick OK, ranking high and under $1 million.

However, the five state officials on the panel — Governor Mark Gordon, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Treasurer Curt Meier, Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, and Certified Public Accountant Kristi Racines — had a lengthy debate over Park County’s $2 million request and the City of Codys $2.5 million application to replace old water pipes.

received septage

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The county’s project is part of an effort to replace its aging wastewater ponds. Located just outside of Cody’s city limits on Rocky Road, the lagoons contain ‘septage’ – that is, sewage pumped from land-dwellers’ sewage systems; The county’s private trucking companies have dumped their garbage loads on the site for at least 50 years.

However, as the county has grown and the amount of human waste has increased, “these lagoons are starting to fail,” Park County Commissioner Lee Livingston told the board.

“We connected them, kept them together,” Livingston said, but now it’s time to replace the facilities.

The county considered upgrading the current lagoons, but decided it would ultimately make more sense to have the effluent delivered to Cody’s new treatment plant.

“We just feel like the population is going in the direction that it’s going — with the city of Cody and the county of Park — that it would be beneficial to have a centralized wastewater treatment facility,” Livingston said.

Park County Engineer Brian Edwards added, “It makes a lot of sense from an environmental perspective to combine these.”

In addition, the commissioners have said that the closure and reclamation of the lagoons will open the country to potential development.

The ponds will ultimately be self-sustaining and funded by fees charged to the carriers (and therefore their customers) using the municipal facilities. But first, Cody’s facility needs to be modified to accommodate a septic tank, and that’s estimated to cost $4 million. Park County initially asked SLIB to pay 74% of its formation costs ($2.96 million), but after that application was denied last fall, the commission proposed splitting the project 50-50 with the state.

The district’s “putting some skin on the game” helped win Auditor Racines, who backed the $2 million in funding.

Treasurer Meier agreed no, noting that the district had already received millions of dollars in ARPA funding, “a pretty good chunk per capita.” Meier preferred to award $1 million.

Cody water pipes

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The rest of the board supported Park County’s sewage project, but concerns that too many dollars were going to the county caused them to shelve Cody’s request to upgrade the water system.

The city intends to replace a number of water mains in a part of the city known as “Tree Streets” and surrounding neighborhoods. Current lines, made primarily of cast iron and ductile iron pipe, were installed in the 1970s and early 1980s and have fallen into disrepair, said city works director and engineer Phillip Bowman.

With Cody planning an overhaul of its entire distribution system — and further increasing its water prices accordingly — Tree Streets and surrounding areas rose to the top of the list; They’ve seen frequent line breaks and low water pressure, Bowman said.

“We’re trying to fully fund our own infrastructure, but see this as an opportunity to help us get started on our Project #1 and finish and build it in 2024 and 2025,” he said.

The board didn’t approve the funding request last month, but Secretary Gray noted additional federal dollars are coming for water and sanitation projects. In fact, this was one of the reasons Superintendent Degenfelder was reluctant to fund any of the local applications. She also noted that the City of Cody and Park County initially had no representatives available to answer questions when the projects were brought up for discussion.

“We just have so many others to hear who have traveled very well and made a commitment to be here at the start of the meeting,” Degenfelder said.

At one point, when state officials couldn’t reach Park County and Cody officials for a period of time, Gordon quipped, “I think Yellowstone’s about to have a big eruption or something.”

However, an apologetic Commissioner Livingston eventually arrived in person, and Edwards and Bowman attended the February 28 meeting remotely.

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