LISBON - The decision to convert a $500,000 in federal stimulus funding from a loan to a grant will result in a yearly savings of $90 for households affected by a St. Clair Township sewer project.
Columbiana County Engineer Bert Dawson delivered this good news to county commissioners during their meeting last week.
The county received $2 million in federal stimulus to help fund the $9 million project to extend a county sanitary sewer line to the Substation and Glenmoor areas of St. Clair Township. Approximately $1.5 million of the stimulus money was in the form of a grant, while $500,000 was in the form of a 40-year loan the county had to repay.
Dawson said he was told recently by the state the $500,000 loan was being converted into a grant. To repay the $500,000 loan, the county was planning to charge customers along the proposed sewer line route $7.50 a month for 40 years. Dawson said they won't have to repay the money since it is being reclassified as a grant, eliminating the need to charge the extra $7.50.
"We don't know exactly how much that will be, but this should help knock it down," he said of the monthly user fee, which will be based on loan repayments and the sewage treatment costs once the project is completed.
This is just more good news for the 389 households and 36 businesses located along the streets and households where the new sewer line is to be run. Dawson announced last year the tap-in fee charged households was being waived because the construction bids came in more than $2 million under estimates.
Part of the reason for the tap fee waiver is the county was able to obtain 62 percent grant money to fund the project, which Dawson said is almost unheard at a time when agencies are fortunate to obtain 50 percent grant money for any project. The more grant money is obtained, the less money that has to be borrowed and the lower the monthly user fee needed to repay the loan.
"If I do say so, that's pretty phenomenal," Dawson said of the 62 percent figure.
Homeowners still are required to hook into the sewer line because the project has been ordered by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Although homeowners no longer will have to pay the tap fee, they are on the hook for the cost of hiring an excavator to run the connector line from the house to the sewer line as well as the expense of filling in their abandoned septic tanks. Dawson said there is federal grant money available for income-eligible households to help pay those expenses.
