Council clears hurdle on way to stimulus funds

Angels Camp cut one of the last strings holding back a $3.1 million federal stimulus grant Tuesday.

Nearly three months after the City Council learned to its dismay that the city had to allow water and sewer ratepayers to protest a series of fee increases dating back to June 2006 in order to receive the grant, the procedure has successfully completed.
  

Just 21 ratepayers ultimately challenged the rate increases — far short of the more than 800 protests needed.

Red tape remains. The city must apply for a waiver for the fund’s “Buy American” requirement, as the ultraviolet system to be installed in the plant is only available abroad, said Gary Ghio, city engineer.

“There’s always strings on free money,” he observed.

The money, along with a 20-year loan at 1 percent of $286,000, will go toward the construction of a wastewater treatment plant.

The city is under a cease-and-desist order from the state to upgrade its facilities so that it can deal with a once-in-a-hundred-years weather event, said Carol Woolf, manager of the city’s water treatment plant.

Holman Reservoir, the city’s only major storage area, is rated to only withstand a once-in-25-years weather event, she said.  The new plant would allow the city, in an arrangement signed off by the state, to disinfect the water with a new ultraviolet system and pump it into Angels Creek.

"You might say that once in 100 years is the frequency this will be used,” said Mayor Jack Lynch, adding that he hopes with the system that the city will not need to expand the reservoir.

Members of the public, including Evonne Redding, who turned in two protests, peppered staff with questions. Many asked whether this would be the last costly upgrade the city would be forced to complete.

“Unfortunately, there is no end,” Ghio said. “We may have a 500-year rain event put on us next.”

The plant, which is being built by Concord-based Pacific Mechanical Corp., is already under construction. It is expected to be finished within a year, he said.