Nikole Babb
nbabb@cherryroad.com

Grants, funding and one-cent sales tax

The City of Towanda has worked on solving a city-wide water leak for nearly a year after the discovery that they were losing 50,000 gallons of water each day. Multiple grants and a long-term plan could be the solution the city has been looking for.

Despite city maintenance workers’ efforts to locate and fix active leaks they know of, the rural town is still losing 40,000 gallons of water every day. In addition, the City Administrator of Towanda, Andy Newbrey, said that the city has depleted the City Maintenance fund in paying for the excess water. The leak and town residents have demanded attention on the issue, but it wasn’t an easy problem to navigate.

Much of the city’s waterlines are galvanized 80-100 years old and cast iron that desperately needs to be replaced. For example, there is a strip of piping near 3rd St that has five patches on it, that Newbrey says isn’t uncommon amongst the city’s water system.

“If our engineering company can work with our maintenance crew and come up with a plan of attack to replace the lines that we know are bad first, we can see what happens,” said Newbrey. “If it fixes it; we’re done. If it doesn’t then we keep going.”

Newbrey agreed that the city needs an overhaul on the entire water system. In order to do that, the city first needs to find funds to even begin to design a new water system.

“However, we may continue to replace because we know we have a lot of lines in bad shape so we may continue to replace to prevent future leaks, even if the leak stops,” said Newbrey.

So far, the city has applied for two grants to start that overhaul process. The first being a Technical Assistance water grant, which was awarded last week, through the State of Kansas as allocated by Senate Substitute for House Bill 2302 Grant Programs. The program provides $26 million to be awarded to water projects throughout the state. Towanda was awarded $390,000 that they will use to design a new water system.

The second grant they’re waiting to hear back on is much larger, $3.8 million, which will be used for construction if awarded. But even $4.19 million dollars won’t cover the fix needed. Newbrey stated that a second one cent sales tax is being considered to be put on the ballot in November to cover costs.

“We have so much that people are buying online that the one cent sales tax would generate about $190,000 per year, including local sales,” said Newbrey. “People always think of sales tax as brick-and-mortar sales, but everything delivered in town and purchased online goes to the local taxing entity.”

Towanda residents currently pay a one cent sales tax that will end on December 1, 2026. That tax provides city funds for the Butler County Sheriff’s Office contract, city pool expenses, and lowering property taxes and to shorten the duration of the sewer lagoon loan. The tax was voted in by resident ballot in 2016.

The loan on the lagoon is through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, which has about $300,000 left to be paid. The loan was taken out in 2009 for a total of $1.7 million.

The tax Newbrey mentioned enacting would be in addition to the current one. He suggested the current one may be extended and is necessary in order to continue to pay for the city’s bills.

The plan and path to fix a leak this large can take time for a rural time to devise. With fewer residents paying taxes to the city, rural towns often rely on state and federal grants to fund projects. As they secure funds and grow closer to fixing the water leak, the Times-Gazette will continue to report.