The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Joplin Metro

Discussion

May 28, 2009

City staff details plan on bond issue

By Debby Woodin

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

The only people other than city staff members who turned out Thursday night for an informational meeting on a $35 million Joplin bond-issue proposal were two representatives of the city of Duenweg.

And they were not there to hear the details of the Aug. 4 ballot proposal. They were there to object to the amount of a 50 percent surcharge that the City Council has decided to assess out-of-city users of the Joplin wastewater system. The current surcharge rate is 10 percent.

The Duenweg mayor, Russell Olds, and another Duenweg resident, Jane Ballard, said they will attend a public hearing Monday night on the rates.

Olds said the city of Joplin has not talked to its out-of-city users about any of the issues related to the need for updates at the sewage plants or the rates. Ballard said a contract that Joplin and Duenweg signed in 1978 adding Duenweg to the sewer system provides for talks every three years about the amount of sewer rates that are to be charged, but Joplin has never come to the table for those talks.

“There’s been no interaction,” Olds said.

The two said they would attend Monday night’s public-comment session.

Tim Nyander, the city’s community services manager, gave a presentation outlining what the city says is the need for $35 million worth of renovations at the city’s two wastewater-treatment plants.

Among the planned updates, increased disinfection of the discharged water is needed at the Turkey Creek plant, and increased ammonia removal is needed for the Shoal Creek plant, to meet state and federal mandates.

If the city does not comply, it could face fines of $8,000 for each day it operates without meeting new standards that go into effect in 2012.

The question to voters will be whether the city can finance that work through a state fund that provides loans to cities and other government entities to pay for such work.

Joplin could get a loan at an interest rate of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent via the state program. Over the 20-year term of the debt, city officials have said, the low interest rate could save the city from $9.2 million to $11 million.

Since all cities have to meet the stricter standards, there will be demand for the state loans, and the state cannot guarantee that the funds would be available to Joplin if voters do not approve the transaction by November, the city’s finance director, Leslie Jones, said at the meeting.

No City Council members attended the meeting at Cecil Floyd Elementary School.

Mayor Gary Shaw said by phone after the meeting that he had another commitment and could not attend the session. He said he did not realize that no other council representatives would be at the meeting. He said it was the council’s intention that the city staff members conduct the meeting and present the information.

Another informational meeting on the bond issue and ballot question is planned for June 23 at Eastmorland Elementary School, and there will be a series of “City Hall in the Park” meetings through the summer at which residents may speak to council members directly.





Public hearing



The Joplin City Council will conduct a public hearing on the proposed sewer-rate increases during its regular meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 602 S. Main St.

Under the proposal, Joplin residential rates will increase by $6.33, or about 30 percent, over the next five years from the current basic rate of $21.01 to $27.34 per month. Commercial and industrial rates also will increase, as will surcharges to those users.

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