City Council Approves $3.5 Million Loan For Wastewater Treatment Plant Ahead of Schedule

By Gordon Hopkins The City of Fairbury approved a loan agreement for $3.5 million faster than anticipated.The City will be executing a loan agreement for $3.5 million for funding from the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE) to pay for improvements to the City's wastewater treatment plant.The rules of the City Council normally requires three readings for such an ordinance, although the rules can be suspended and the three readings waived should an ordinance need to be expedited. The Fairbury City Council unanimously approved the first reading of Ordinance 3100, which authorizes the execution and delivery of the loan agreement, at a meeting the evening of Tuesday, September 7. At that time, Councilperson Phil Rogge said, “I guess I'd like to see the three readings where we're borrowing three and a half million dollars. If anybody had any concerns that they want to address.”City Administrator Robert Messbarger said at that meeting, “There is no reason we need to expedite it. The staff didn't feel there's reason to do the three readings. This is a project that has already been approved. It was approved on March 15 2021.”It was intended that the next two readings would happen at the following two City Council meetings. However, at the City Council meeting on September 21, when it was expected the City Council would approve the second reading, Councilperson Douglas Brown made a motion to suspend the rules and give Ordinance 3100 the next two readings. No reason was given for the change and the City Council voted unanimously to suspend the rules and move forward with the loan agreement.No property needs to be purchased by the City for this project. All work will be done inside the fencing of the existing property. The City Council voted to approve an engineering agreement with Olsson, an engineering company that the City has worked with on many projects, to design and bid the wastewater treatment plant improvements in March of this year.The last major upgrade to the wastewater treatment plant occurred in 1998. A water treatment system evaluation was completed in March of 2018 and several recommendations were made, including improvements to the headworks, buildings, piping, valves, a new clarifier ring and new grit processing.

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