City opts to seek $2.3 million from Northwest Florida Water Management District.
by Kathy Foster
Meeting in special session Tuesday evening, the Chipley City Council voted 4-0 to apply for $2.3 million to upgrade the City’s sewage treatment plant to meet current needs.
However, they agreed they are still facing some long-range problems that will also need to be addressed.
Council members met with representatives of Mott MacDonald to review the firm’s report and look at their options.
Reporting on the sewer plant, the engineers described the plant as being “right at capacity” and said the city needs to develop both short-range and long-range plans to meet needs of the sewage treatment plant and the community.
While the first stage of the work is expected to be complete in about one and one-half years, but council members said long-range solutions to other problems related to the sewage treatment plant and disposal of effluent will be spread out over a few more years. The engineers pointed out the following:
- Purchase of land for effluent disposal (with high perk rates)
- Purchase of land with limited exposure to adjacent landowners
- Improvement of current sprayfields
- Extension of effluent pumping systems to southern portions of the County
- The potential for expanded future growth capacity