JARRETT GOODMAN
Staff Writer
South Pittsburg’s Board of Mayor & Commissioners (BoMC) has agreed to allow additional funding for the ongoing water system project.
According to Keith Garth, Manager of Marion Gas Systems & South Pittsburg Water, the project in question first began in 2018 to update two water tanks and all meters tied to the city’s water system. He stated all meters for the water system have since been replaced and South Pittsburg Mountain’s water tank has already been installed and ready for service, leaving only Contour Avenue’s water tank yet to be installed.
Under Resolution 1057, Garth requested approval from the BoMC for Marion Gas Systems to receive $556,575 in funds from Tennessee’s State Revolving Funds (SRF) program, in addition to a $166,972.50 loan forgiveness to help support the installation of Contour Avenue’s new water tank. He explained how originally, costs for the entire project were estimated to be worth $2,160,000 with an added $540,000 in principal forgiveness funds. Due to the influx of prices in material over the years caused by inflation, in an addition to bidding prices going over than what was expected, Marion Gas Systems eventually applied for additional funds to help complete the final half of the ongoing project, while working closely with an engineer to finding out the overall cost for constructing the final water tank.
“It’s a good program, it’s just a lengthy process when running into things like this,” Garth said. “The engineer is doing his best to come up with an estimate that is close to what the construction fees should cost and get us closer to him when we run into this. That’s what the resolution is for. ”
Members of the city council unanimously agreed to approve the resolution during South Pittsburg’s March meeting, allowing one step forward towards the current project’s completion.