Halifax County commissioners today authorized a memorandum of understanding with the town of Weldon as well as funds to help in a preliminary engineer report for a new town water treatment plant.

The MOU, County Attorney Glynn Rollins said “simply expresses our intent to continue to work together toward how we might do this jointly.”

The board approved $100,000 from its capital reserve fund to the current public utilities budget for the professional services related to the project.

According to the MOU, a PER is needed to provide a comprehensive assessment of the project’s feasibility, cost estimates, potential environmental impacts, capacity issues, and matters related to regulatory compliance. 

The town has approved a contract with Green Engineering to perform the PER for a total of $122,000 and the county has agreed to reimburse the town $60,000 or 50 percent of the total cost of the PER. The county will reimburse the town within 30 days upon receipt of a final invoice from Green Engineering.

The town currently operates a 2 million gallons per day conventional surface water treatment plant which was originally built in the late 1800’s, and is in need of major repairs, upgrades, and expansion for continued operation. “The town has been exploring the idea of replacing and constructing a new WTP on a new site, in partnership with the county, to serve their collective needs as well as the future water needs of the region,” the MOU says.

The document says the county and town desire to enter into a future interlocal agreement which would set forth detailed provisions for the ownership, management, maintenance and operation of the new WTP and the provision of water treatment services to customers served by the parties. “The parties desire to enter into this MOU to memorialize their present intentions and plans to continue working together towards the execution of an ILA, or to explore other viable options for the construction and development of the new WTP … and to show their support for exploring and securing a long-term solution to the region’s water and wastewater needs.”

The town has identified two possible sites for placement of the new WTP and along with the county agree to explore the possible sites and properties for its construction as well as cooperate in future negotiations with landowners during the land-acquisition process. 

The MOU says the new WTP will have a minimum capacity of 2 mgd and the current estimated cost to build is $48 million. 

The town will use funds from EPA’s WIIN Grant and undertake additional financing from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to fund the construction of the project.

Under the ownership and reserved capacity section of the MOU, the document says the town will own, manage, and operate the new WTP and the county will have a certain level or percentage of reserve capacity, with the option to purchase additional capacity. “The county will pay for debt servicing and operational costs based on the percentage in reserve capacity, which will be determined at a later date, and memorialized in the ILA.

“It is the intent of the parties that each party will pay its proportionate share of costs for construction, operation, maintenance, and expansion of the capacity of the WTP. The ILA will contain provisions for the county to pay its proportionate share of any other unforeseen costs associated with plant operations and maintenance.”

Commissioner Gary Redding said the board is trying to move the county forward and expand economic development and wanted to know what the project would mean in terms of expansion and rates for customers.

Public Utilities Director Chris Williams said that is the overall goal of the project — developing better water quality and improving the delivery system which will help the town, the county and a small portion of Northampton County. “All projects are focused on not necessarily reducing the cost but reducing the long-term costs.”

Rollins said at this point he can’t say what the future arrangements would be between the county and the town. “That’s all part of the PER. It’s also part of the negotiations that go on after that.”

The county attorney said one option “is for us to have more control of the delivery of clean water to our system and one option is to co-own a treatment plant with the town of Weldon, but another option that is quite common around the state is to have the town own and operate the new facility but we have contracted with them a reserved capacity that essentially gives us what we want — which is clean water. That reserve capacity essentially costs us by sharing in the debt service and the capital costs and the recurring operating cost with them based upon our reserved capacity versus their reserved capacity.”

Going forward, Rollins said, it’s going to become more complicated. “It’s all going toward a regional approach to the delivery of clean water, working with another unit of government, and with others. That’s one of those things you want in these interlocal agreements is how you bring other entities into it.”

The PER, Rollins said, will have a breakdown of projected costs. “We know we can’t do nothing because there are issues with water that get more and more complex. We know that we've got to have improvements … the town of Weldon has got to have a new water system.”

Board Chair Vernon Bryant said the MOU will help the county to see what direction it needs to go in.

Commissioner Thomas Barrett said he was in favor of moving forward with the MOU if it helps the county determine what its costs will be down the road. “I just want to be sure when we get to that point if it’s going to cost a bunch of money then I’m not sure if I’m going to be in favor of going through with this.”