The Newberry City Commission tweaked its funding plans for a new wastewater treatment facility during a regular commission meeting and pushed back a discussion of extending the city’s agreement with Easton Archery.
Though the city of Newberry is only currently using about 50% of its wastewater treatment facility’s capacity, city staff says wastewater allotments for future development have nearly reached capacity. The wastewater capacity entitlement is allotted upon a plat’s approval for residential developments, or upon the approval of a construction plan for nonresidential developments.
City Manager Mike New told the commission on Monday that at its current growth rate, Newberry will likely reach actual full wastewater capacity within about four years.
As the city’s need for more wastewater capacity aligns with the state’s timing to introduce more stringent state regulations on reduction of nutrients and biosolids, city staff has designed, planned and permitted a 1.2 million gallons per day (mgd) facility, and is now establishing how to pay for the facility.
New said the balance for the planned treatment facility is to be about 25% to provide for existing customers, about 15% reserved for the city of Archer, with which Newberry entered an interlocal agreement in January to provide the wastewater capacity and wean the smaller city off of septic.
The last 60% of the facility would be new capacity, which New said has been difficult to convince the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). He said though construction plans have been ready for six months, FDEP won’t move the project forward because 20% growth is a more normal rate, and Newberry’s 60% growth expectation is insecure, so needs to be authorized.
“We have a $49 million grant application out there,” New told the commission. “If that comes home, that goes a long way toward securing the outstanding, and it gets to be a much lower bar. But… DEP has advised us not to count on that because DEP says, ‘We don’t give grants to new growth.’”
In order to secure FDEP State Revolving Fund (SRF) loans for that much new growth, which New said matches the city’s trend for the past decade, Newberry needs developers to guarantee that they will build enough to fill that capacity.
Staff arrived at the meeting with three options for developer agreement amendments that could provide the necessary security:
- Reserve capacity for a development with a full, up-front payment of system development charges.
- Pay 25% of system development charges up front, then 20% every 60 days until 85% of the total charges have been paid (three payments). The remaining 15% is due when the developer receives an approved point of connection from the city.
- Commit to 10 annual payments of a minimum of 10% each, secured by some type of bond.
Each developer would work with city staff individually to suit the agreement of their choice to their individual development. Commissioner Mark Clark also suggested a fourth option that New said staff could work into the plan: keep everything the same as Option No. 3, but move payments to the end of the year, instead of the beginning.
If the city cannot demonstrate its ability to repay the debt, New said the new treatment facility’s capacity will need to be reduced, killing the capacity for growth.
Including about $13 million pledged from Archer and the rest from FDEP SRF loans and grants, Newberry has about $27 million in hand “within striking distance,” according to New.
Newberry’s chief financial officer Dallas Lee said the city has applied for numerous grants and loans in its attempts to cover the cost of the higher-tier facility that the state now requires.
“We are collecting change in the streets,” Lee said.
Mayor Jordan Marlowe said he has received several comments from community members about Archer, which is currently in a state of financial emergency, saying if the plant becomes too expensive Archer could be cut out of the deal.
Marlowe said that would be a bad idea for several reasons, including the contract both cities signed, the value of having a partner municipality when asking for grants, and the fact that it would cost money to redesign the facility after dropping Archer at this point.
New said staff expects to finish the plan in late 2026 or early 2027.
Easton Expansion
In 2008, the city of Newberry partnered with the Easton Foundation to construct a 17,600-square-foot recreational facility on 40 acres of city land north of the downtown.
Easton paid $1.5 million and the city paid the difference to cover construction costs, which New estimated to be over $1 million. The city and Easton then entered into an operating agreement to last from 2009 until 2029, which requires the city to continue archery for another 10 years after termination of the agreement.
Fifteen years after the city and Easton began sharing the building and land, the city has added property to make the site a total of about 110 acres. Easton maintains the indoor gymnasium and outdoor shooting area and uses the multipurpose fields for 3-4 events each year.
On Monday, Easton requested to extend the relationship with a 35-year contract, and the addition of about 9,800 square feet of additional construction on the north end of the building. The city is planning its own 10,000-square-foot gym construction to the south of the existing structure, and recently purchased 60 acres to use for multipurpose fields.
Both Easton Archery and Newberry’s recreational uses have reached capacity, and though Easton even offered to cover all utility costs and janitorial needs for the mostly-outdoor expansion it proposed, Marlowe pulled back to say the commission was not expecting that proposal, and that the city needs to consider how an extended and expanded agreement would affect its plans for the facility.
“I need to know what your options are,” Marlowe told an Easton representative on Monday. “Because I agree with [Newberry’s recreation director] that we’re capped, you’re capped, and… we don’t want to lose Easton, but we also don’t want to have to start telling our kids you can’t play here, because we’ve got nowhere else to put you.”
Though commissioners gave generally positive comments about extending an agreement with Easton, they and the Easton representative agreed to push the discussion back for 90 days.