The total cost of the project is $473,000, but the city qualified for a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the money to be disbursed by the New Mexico Environment Department, which will also oversee the federal loan.
Jesse Cole, director of the city’s wastewater and water departments, said the vacuum lines “run north and south down Riverside Drive and the Rodeo Arena,” with “76 pits in the ground with up to four connections each,” the connections going to about 300 customers.
“They [the vacuum lines] back up pretty regularly,” Cole said, with customers calling the city to inform them they can’t flush.
The system was built in 1996 “and has been pretty well maintained,” Cole said, but now it needs rehabilitation.
One of the upgrades will be the installation of “light-emitting diodes,” which will tell a customer right away if “no suction is going to the home,” allowing for an “early response,” which is key, Cole said.
More vacuum pits will be purchased and existing vacuum pits and vacuum pumps will be replaced.
The city will pay 1.2-percent interest annually on the $373,000 principal. The life of the loan is not stated beyond the phrase, “the final maturity is not to exceed the agreed upon useful life of the project.”
The first payment is due within one year after the project is completed.
The pledged revenue is “wastewater system revenues,” in other words, money collected from city sewer-bill payers.
The city has two loans it is paying off from the same revenue source. It still owes $212,506 principal on a $1.8-million loan from the New Mexico Finance Authority at 2.268-percent interest, which matures May 1, 2021. The second debt is also an NMFA loan for $75,000 at 0-percent interest, which matures June 1, 2035.
The City is obligated to “accomplish” the project by doing the following steps: preliminary engineering report, location survey, environmental planning and permitting, architectural-engineering design for the vacuum station building, letting or bidding the project, construction management and construction.