End in sight for Eureka sewer woes - Wayne-Wilson News Leader, Fremont, NC

Commissioner Myrtie Sauls attended a meeting last month in Fremont with Fremont officials and officials from the League of Municipalities. League officials proposed during the meeting a two year repayment schedule, with Eureka paying $40,000 every six months towards the old bill.

Mrs. Sauls brought the proposal before the Eureka Board Tuesday night and they unanimously accepted the proposal.

“I’m just glad they gave us two years,” Mrs. Sauls related.

“At the end of this two-year period,” she continued, “maybe we can let our citizens see a little relief on their bills. Maybe we can come off our bills a little bit.” League officials have been insistent on Eureka increasing their sewer charges and tax rate until the charges are covered.

While Eureka officials have been perplexed about how Wayne County’s smallest municipality could pay off the big bills that mounted over the past two years, League officials told Mrs. Sauls that based on a lack of other indebtedness, Eureka was in better financial shape than most municipalities. They said Eureka would rank in the top third of municipalities in the state regarding per capita indebtedness.

Mrs. Sauls stressed that the sewer repairs being done seem to have lowered the town’s inflow and infiltration problems, along with the lack of rain, have kept Eureka’s monthly bill around $3,000 per month from Fremont. She said it was important that the sewer system fixes hold, along with the weather. She said with the $5,000 per month the town’s sewer billing is generating, against the $3,000 current billing, that will allow $2,000 per month or $24,000 annually that would go toward the old bill.

She said as part of the agreement, there was a small amount above the $160,000 that Eureka should go ahead and take care of.

She also noted that the town had a CD that would be maturing soon, and that money should be given to Fremont when it matures against the first $40,000.

League officials offered to help lower Eureka’s rate from Fremont if a proposal to save Fremont some money on their rate with Goldsboro goes through.

Fremont is seeking a permit that would allow them to re-open their spray field rather than sending all of their wastewater to Goldsboro. While the spray field will require some investment, the costs for treating the sewage sent to the plant would be considerably less than the Goldsboro rate which League officials admitted was high.

Mrs. Sauls related that she had received a phone call from League officials Tuesday confirming the offer to negotiate a new rate for the Town of Eureka if the proposed spray field is permitted.

Town worker Herbert Green came to the meeting and shared his readings of the meter at the Baker St. pump station. Mayor Steven Howell and Commissioner Bobby Gooding continued to question the accuracy of the billing from Fremont as they varied from the town’s readings.

Commissioner Billy Martin reminded the board that the engineers on the project said that a variance of up to 5% was to be expected, and the actual variance fell within the 5% range.

Mr. Green noted that the recent heavy rain in the town had increased the flow readings, but only by 3-4,000 gallons.

Mr. Martin said that the Baker St. manhole leak complaint that had been given to the engineer at the last meeting still has not been fixed. The board members said they needed to make sure that all such problems were fixed before the contractors left town.

Mrs. Sauls reluctantly raised the issue of whether the town was due some relief on their contract on the sewer system repairs, as the completion date of August 15 had not been met. Both she and Mr. Martin noted that the contractors had “done a wonderful job,” but she said the contract calls for $400 a day penalty if the completion goes past August 15. “We got into this mess being nice,” she said.

The board acknowledged that there had been some change orders processed on some of the work in town, and that some had been given extended contract completion dates as a result, but they thought that some had not changed past the 15^th.

Town Clerk Rita Chase said she would check on the details of the contracts and contact the engineers if it appeared the contractors were in violation.

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