BERLIN – Town leaders voted not to move forward with a Graham Avenue stormwater project this week.
Citing concerns regarding the way the project was to be funded, three of the four town council members present at Monday’s meeting voted against a motion to award a $105,000 contract for the Graham Avenue Submerged Gravel Wetlands Project. Staff had proposed funding a portion of the stormwater project with a loan from the town’s water fund.
“We all know how bad the flooding is in that area, however I’m hesitant a little bit with having the stormwater fund take on more borrowing from another fund,” Councilman Zack Tyndall said.
According to Darl Kolar of EA Engineering, Science and Technology, Berlin’s stormwater consultant, the town received two bids for the submerged gravel wetlands. Because town officials had budget concerns regarding the project, staff pared the project down and contacted the bidders to see if they’d submit revised proposals. The low bidder, Goody Hill Groundwork, submitted a revised bid for $105,000 and Kolar recommended the town move forward with hiring the company.
Town Administrator Laura Allen said that while a grant would fund the majority of the project cost, staff proposed borrowing the remaining $37,500 needed from the water fund’s contingency of about $81,000.
“At some point when the stormwater fund is able to return those funds back to the water fund it will do so,” she said.
Allen added that this project had been identified as one of the town’s top priority stormwater improvements.
“This is a good opportunity for us to get another water quality project completed in the town,” she said.
When Councilman Thom Gulyas asked for an explanation of the submerged gravel wetlands, Kolar explained that it was a site design that would promote water quality because it would be filtering accumulated water through mulch, topsoil, etc.
Tyndall expressed concern about the borrowing between funds. Mayor Gee Williams said it was important for the project to move forward. He said the town had already completed nearly $3 million in stormwater improvements and still had $7 million in projects left to do.
“The more we delay it the more costly it gets…,” he said. “If we want to actually do something about the flooding we are going to have to adjust the stormwater fees so we can come up with our share so that makes us eligible for grants. We’re trying very hard to be an environmentally responsible community but being an environmentally responsible, it’s a lot more costly than doing nothing. I understand the concern but at the same time that’s what the contingency fund is for.”
Councilman Troy Purnell asked whether the wetlands would actually help with flooding in the Graham Avenue neighborhood.
“This facility will have some storage space and volume so it will help but it will not resolve it,” Kolar said. “It’s just a part of what we need to do.”
Resident Marie Velong questioned the town’s plan to have one enterprise fund borrow from another. She said borrowing between funds was what had created the need for this year’s substantial tax increase. She suggested the town look at projects realistically and keep in mind that taxpayers were the ones providing the town with its funding.
Allen said that if the town didn’t accomplish the project soon, it would have to return the grant money to the state.
Resident Jason Walter echoed Velong’s comments.
“Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not the right way to do this,” he said, adding that he didn’t consider two bids sufficient. “I’m concerned that you only had two bidders on this. That tells me that there’s a flaw in the process.”
When Councilman Elroy Brittingham made a motion to award the contract to Goody Hill and transfer the money from the water fund, it failed with Purnell, Tyndall and Gulyas voting against it. Councilman Dean Burrell was absent.
When asked after the meeting what the council’s lack of approval meant for the project, Allen said staff were looking at other options because the project was a “critical priority.”
“My sense is the council was concerned with the way the funding of the project was structured, not the balance or the combination of grants but the borrowing from the water fund,” Allen said. “One of the challenges we have is that the stormwater fund is struggling a little bit. The general fund has been propping up the stormwater fund from its inception to one degree or another each year.”
She said the town currently still had the grant funding and was not giving up on the project.
“I feel like we’ve made a commitment to that neighborhood so I’m just trying to figure out a way to address what I see as the council’s concerns around the funding,” she said.