Washington County’s Board of County Commissioners met in Special Session Thursday morning to address some needs of the City of Vernon.
by Kathy Foster
The only action taken during the meeting was the Board’s approval to loan the City of Vernon $28,000 for needed repairs to its wastewater treatment facility that will allow local septic service companies to dump sewage into the Vernon municipal system.
Commissioners said last year the State mandated that sewage must be dumped into an approved facility and that previously a facility in Jackson County had been accepting the raw sewage for disposal, but that recently changed and Jackson County is no longer accepting out-of-county sewage. Washington County-based companies are now required to have a location in their own county.
Putting the issue before the Board, Commission Chair Tray Hawkins said the problem had reached an emergency level and action needed to be taken immediately. He also said the City of Vernon had agreed to a one-year payback on the loan.