NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Board of Reno County Commissioners decided the direction the sewer project for the Yoder and HABIT sewer districts will go at their meeting on Wednesday.
They decided to approve building the lagoons on the land that the county already purchased rather than piping the wastewater to the city of Hutchinson.
This was after an explanation from an engineer, Stuart Porter, with Schwab Eaton as to how the perceived savings of using the city's system really aren't there after all.
"If we use the published wastewater treatment cost that Hutchinson has and we prorate that out to the anticipated flow that we are planning, for the full buildout of this system, that being roughly $100,000 a year, technically, it calculates to be $101,000. If we take that amount of annual cost and we do a debt service amortization on it using the interest rates that we would be looking at from the KDHE loan and also USDA financing, roughly 2.25 to 2.75%, that $101,000 annually, would equate to a debt service payment that would service $1.6 million in debt, over a period of 20 years. If we take the $4.5 million project and we add $1.6 million to it, we're at $6.1 million, which is essentially the same cost as the proposed lagoon project for sewer districts 201 and 202."
When figuring that along with the environmental impacts that would have to be mitigated by piping the wastewater up past the river and the fact that the county will have control of the entire system for its life if they use the lagoons, the commission ultimately approved pursuing a loan application for the lagoon project by a unanimous 5-0 vote.
The loan application is due by October 15, 2023.
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