The Meeker Public Works Authority has received notice of approval of a $1,635,000 loan to help improve its wastewater infrastructure.
The $1.6 million loan is from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and is for construction of upgrades and improvements in the town’s wastewater system.
OWRB officials said the loan will be financed by the Oklahoma Clean Water State Revolving Fund and that $200,000 of the loan will be forgiven.
Meeker Town Administrator Dickie Walton has explained the project is to replace more than 17,000 lineal feet of sewer line and to repair or replace sewer manholes. Walton estimates there are about 100 manholes that need to be repaired or replaced throughout the town.
The project is estimated to cost around $1.7 million.
Walton said the next step is Cowan Engineering will put the project out for bid and the Meeker PWA Trustees will open those in a meeting in the future. He added that he has not been given a time frame yet as to when that will occur.
The Town Administrator recently pointed out some funds have already been secured. “We have a $200,000 Principal Forgiveness loan from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, $170,000 from the Indian Health Services and we received a $60,000 Principal Forgiveness loan from OWRB that funded the study.”
During a special meeting in early March of the Meeker PWA and Town Board of Trustees (the members are the same), Allen Brooks and Nate Ellis with the Public Finance Group, who assisted the town with the loan application, and who attended that special meeting, presented figures showing the net loan amount is $1,435,000.
That figure, along with the Principal Forgiveness loans less costs of issuance/grant administrative costs of $100,500 brings total project funds to $1,704,500, they said.
Average annual debt service on the loan is $64,098.50, they noted.
Brooks pointed out the Principal Forgiveness loans are essentially grants.
The Town Board, during that special meeting in March, met first as the Public Works Authority, then as the Town Board, and voted to increase raising monthly rates for sewer by $8.50, $1.50 more for water and $1 more for trash.
Those new rates became effective for the billing cycle on or after May 1, 2021and included that beginning May 1, 2022, water, sewer and trash rates will increase three percent each year.
In November last year, the PWA voted to increase monthly water, sewer and trash rates by $1 each. Those increases became effective Dec. 1, 2020.
The PWA also adopted a resolution that pledges those revenues and a portion of an existing city sales tax as security to pay for the $1.7 million loan from the OWRB to fund those improvements to the Town’s sewer system.
Joe Freeman, chief of the OWRB’s Financial Assistance Division, calculated the Authority’s customers will save an estimated $584,200 over the life of the 30-year loan.