Hamilton County commissioners debate mayor’s plan to redistribute $3 million from sewer upgrade funds

Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for the location for an expansion of Clinica Medicos on Nov. 10.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony for the location for an expansion of Clinica Medicos on Nov. 10.

Prompting pushback from several commissioners, Mayor Weston Wamp has proposed reallocating $3 million in federal pandemic relief funds set aside for the Hamilton County Water & Wastewater Treatment Authority, which would instead support a series of other initiatives.

The $3 million allotment is 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.

Wamp told commissioners that redistributing this funding would not affect current efforts at the wastewater treatment authority to end all ongoing sewer moratoriums. As is, the mayor said, it would be years before the identified funding is spent. The money is currently set aside for a rehabilitation project in Middle Valley, Wamp said.

"I'm a WWTA customer," Wamp told commissioners. "I -- like I believe all 11 of you -- support WWTA completely, and I think we are going to be funding and supporting their initiatives in the years ahead, but at this moment there is a better use of this relatively small amount of money within the larger allocation. And rather than sitting on a shelf for years with federal strings attached ... we can put it to better use."

The mayor's proposed resolution had attached to it a Tuesday email to Wamp from Michael Patrick, executive director of the wastewater treatment authority.

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

Organizations that support the local Hispanic population are in particular need of additional funding, Wamp said, claiming they were largely left out of the more than $100 million in federal pandemic funds distributed by the city and county. Approximately 20% of the public school students in Hamilton County are Latino, Wamp said.

"One of the biggest headlines in the years to come in this community is that we have near unprecedented growth in the Latino community, unlike almost anywhere else in the county," Wamp said.

Several commissioners, however, raised concerns about the effect on Hamilton County's wastewater infrastructure needs. They also argued there should have been a more deliberative process for identifying the projects and organizations that would receive this reallocated funding.

Commissioner Warren Mackey, D-Lake Vista, said his district is the poorest in Hamilton County and should have been considered in the mayor's plan.

"I'm not saying the ones you identified are not needed," he said. "I'm just saying that you have omitted the poorest and neediest section when you justify this doing this based on those communities disproportionately impacted."

Other commissioners noted they would prefer to see the county leave the wastewater treatment authority's funding intact and instead come up with other means of financing the mayor's projects.

Commissioner Joe Graham, R-Lookout Valley, pointed out the county has a general fund balance of about $146 million.

"I applaud the executive branch for bringing this forward and thinking out of the box," he said. "I just respectively disagree (with) taking money from infrastructure for these great projects."

Although he said the initiatives seem worthy, Commissioner David Sharpe, D-Red Bank, argued it would set a bad precedent for Hamilton County to claw back money it has already committed.

"It's my opinion that this presents a real sense of instability in Hamilton County government," Sharpe said. "I think the people of this county, the credit agencies that serve this county need to know that when we resolve to do something that we intend to follow through with it."

He encouraged Wamp to present his funding proposal during budget planning.

"Let's not overstate or be melodramatic about the impacts of reallocating $3 million from a project that is years out," Wamp responded. "This is no instability."

Other commissioners were supportive of the plan. Commissioner Greg Beck, D-North Brainerd, has been pushing for the county to create a youth program designed to prevent teenagers from developing tendencies that could lead to acts of violence.

Called the 40/40/40 program, it would enroll 40 14-year-olds in various county-funded programs during the course of four years.

Asked whether the mayor should have followed a more intentional process for identifying the organizations in his proposal, Beck said in a phone call Wednesday that Wamp is entitled to distributing federal pandemic funds in the same manner as the prior County Commission, which allocated approximately $70 million under the American Rescue Plan, passed by Democrats in Congress in 2021.

"There was no process," said Beck, who was sworn in Sept. 1, "and that money should have had more of a process than a doggone $3 million."

Similarly, Commissioner Lee Helton, R-East Brainerd, said he does not see an issue with reallocating the money, which he said would be an intergovernmental transfer and would not involve pulling funds already distributed to an outside organization.

His district includes East Hamilton High School, where students have been unable to play softball and baseball games after sunset.

"I have kids, and it seems like a small thing, they need softball lights," Helton said. "District 4 has them, District 11, District 1. I'm the only high school that doesn't have one. My children have to play ball earlier than everybody else. ... If this the price of my kids getting what they need, I'm going to do it, and I would hope you all support it."


HAMILTON COUNTY MAYOR WAMP'S PROPOSAL

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

— $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.

  photo  Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Visitors pose for photos after the groundbreaking ceremony for the location for an expansion of Clinica Medicos on Nov. 10.
 
 



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