Hamilton County mayor drops plan to fund projects using $3 million in diverted wastewater funds

Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / East Hamilton High School was photographed on April 3, 2020.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / East Hamilton High School was photographed on April 3, 2020.

Following concern last week from members of the County Commission, Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp has dropped a proposal that would have diverted about $3 million in federal relief funds previously allocated to the county's wastewater treatment authority.

Under the mayor’s plan, that money would have funded a series of nine different projects, including the installation of highway markers, road upgrades at Signal Mountain Middle-High School, a program tailored for inner city youth and two organizations that serve the local Hispanic community.

The county has instead opted to partially fund one of those items — new softball and baseball lights for East Hamilton High School — using $400,000 from a 2018 bond issue. County commissioners approved that funding during their meeting Wednesday. Wamp’s initial proposal had set aside $500,000 for that project.

Commissioner Lee Helton, R-East Brainerd, said Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Justin Robertson has agreed for the district to take up the remainder of the cost for the project, which Helton estimated could be around $150,000.

The school’s softball and baseball teams have been unable to host home games in the evening because of improper lighting.

“There was some confusion about our intent with the $3 million package,” Wamp said in an interview with the Chattanooga Times Free Press after the vote. “We had been told it was at the end of the timeline that the federal government had set for (American Rescue Plan Act) funds. So our intent was to prevent taxpayer dollars from being wasted.

“There are some people who are perceiving that we’re pulling funding from wastewater projects, which was not our intent. Our intent was to protect taxpayer dollars to be sure they’re spent in a timely manner. ”

The American Rescue Plan Act was a stimulus package passed by Democrats in Congress in 2021 to help the economy through the pandemic. Dollars passed on to local governments have a strict time limit under which they must be spent.

During previous remarks to the commission, the mayor said the wastewater funding was earmarked for a project that was years down the line: A sewer rehabilitation in Middle Valley.

“At this moment, there is a better use of this relatively small amount of money within the larger allocation,” the mayor told commissioners Jan. 25. “And rather than sitting on a shelf for years with federal strings attached … we can put it to better use.”

However, the wastewater treatment authority’s board of commissioners was scheduled to vote on a resolution associated with that project during its meeting later that day. The board ended up pulling the item after the mayor announced his plan to use the money during the commission’s meeting that morning.

The agenda item at the wastewater board was first reported by Local 3 News, and the Chattanooga Times Free Press confirmed the agenda change with a member of the wastewater board, Pete Phillips, and Commissioner Joe Graham, R-Lookout Valley, who attended the authority’s meeting that afternoon.

“They got scared that they wouldn’t have the money to start that project, so they pulled their resolution,” Graham said. “My understanding is they had a resolution prepared.”

Efforts Wednesday to reach wastewater Board Chairman Dick Gee and Executive Director Mike Patrick by phone were unsuccessful. Wastewater staff told the Chattanooga Times Free Press to submit a public records request for meeting minutes and audio, which the newspaper did.

“I think there was poor communication because we had asked very specifically if there were moneys that they could not guarantee would be spent within the federal guidelines,” Wamp told the Times Free Press on Wednesday. “We were told this $3 million project was both low-priority and in jeopardy of not meeting the timelines. That’s what caused us to act.

“All I can do is operate on and make decisions on the information that’s given,” Wamp continued. “I was given information from WWTA that I still don’t have any reason to believe is not true.”

The funding plan Wamp introduced to the commission last week had attached to it an email Patrick had sent to the mayor the day prior.

“As a follow-up to our conversation, the funding being reallocated through your resolution is designated for a lesser priority project,” Patrick wrote to Wamp. “Postponing the project will not affect the removal (of) any existing sewer moratoriums.”

The mayor’s proposed $3 million reallocation was part of a larger pot of $53 million that Hamilton County has set aside to lift sewer moratoriums and address wastewater infrastructure needs.

About $39 million comes from proceeds the county has received through the American Rescue Plan Act, with the remaining $14 million being in the form of grant matches acquired thanks to that federal funding.

Phillips said in a phone call Wednesday the wastewater authority has lacked appropriate funding for about 20 years, noting that the funding the authority has received is desperately needed for sewer infrastructure.

“We have underfunded our whole sewer system for so many decades,” Phillips said. “If there’s any place that we need money in our county, in my opinion, it’s getting our sewer fixed.”

According to a notice posted on the wastewater authority website, the authority is in the final stages of negotiating a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency. The decree is designed to address excessive sanitary sewer overflows in Hamilton County. In 2018, the authority had plans to spend about $245 million to upgrade the sewage system in the county and some cities.

As for the remaining priorities in the mayor's proposal, Wamp said the county may be able to absorb some of those costs into its current budget, which could involve, for example, beginning the process of installing highway reflectors. Other initiatives could find funding during budget planning for the upcoming fiscal year, he said.


Dropped proposal

Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp had proposed reallocating $3 million in federal pandemic relief funds from the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority to finance various projects. Those included:

— $500,000 to La Paz for a workforce development initiative and to provide bilingual services for four years at the Business Development Center on Cherokee Boulevard.

— $500,000 for the installation of lights at the East Hamilton High School softball and baseball fields.

— $500,000 for community development efforts, including a youth initiative called the 40/40/40 program.

— $500,000 to install reflective highway markers.

— $250,000 to Clinica Medicos to support renovations of a new facility focused on dental and behavioral health needs.

— $200,000 for park maintenance.

— $200,000 for an East Ridge animal shelter.

— $200,000 for land acquisition for a volunteer fire hall to improve coverage around Highway 58.

— $150,000 for road upgrades at Signal Mountain Middle-High School.

Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.

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