Brighton tries for state money for leaky sewer

    The Brighton City Council decided to request $300,000 from the state to help pay for sewer main repairs downtown. John Meyer, president of the engineering and surveying firm French-Reneker Associates, attended the meeting to inform the council of its options.

    Meyer said the City badly needs to repair the sewer main that runs underneath Washington Street between Benton and Farmer streets.

    ?The sewer is in very bad shape,? said Meyer. ?It was put in before 1920. It leaks a lot, and it?s awful. We?ve known that since 1995. In 1996, we did a sewer project that replaced a bunch of sanitary sewers in town. We wanted to do this one, but this stretch of the sewer, because it?s under the pavement, is very expensive. They tried to get the best bang for the buck and did the ones in residential neighborhoods.?

    Brighton submitted an I-JOBS grant application for the sewer and for improvements to the city?s wastewater treatment plant. The project?s bill was estimated at $2.8 million. Brighton was awarded a $595,000 grant, which would cover less than one-quarter of the cost and force the city to find $2.2 million elsewhere.  

    ?In order to accomplish that, they would have to raise their rates to $60 a month,? said Meyer. ?They felt that was impossible.?

    The city?s current sewer rates are $20 for the first 1,000 gallons and then $4 for every 1,000 gallons after that. Meyer said the average wastewater bill for a Brighton resident is about $30 per month.

    To avoid doubling its sewer rates, the council asked Meyer to contact the folks at I-JOBS to see if the state would pay a larger share of a smaller project, such as only replacing the sewer line under Washington Street. Meyer contacted the Iowa Finance Authority, which informed him that the grant money Brighton would receive would be prorated from what they were initially awarded. That means that if the city would receive $600,000 for a $2.8 million project, it would receive about $150,000 for a $700,000 project ? the estimated cost of replacing the sewer line under Washington Street.

    The council instructed Meyer to ask for a $300,000 grant for the $700,000 project. 

For more, see our August 4 print edition.