KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Grain Valley. Share your story idea with Claire.
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The City of Blue Springs is asking voters to approve borrowing up to $65 million to fix, expand, and improve the city's water and sewer system on April 7.
The bond would fund necessary upgrades at the Sni-A-Bar Wastewater treatment plant to make it EPA compliant by 2030. The plant, built in 1988, needs improvements for nutrient removal by reducing phosphorous levels and increased capacity due to city growth.
The bond would be paid back through revenue the city gets from water and sewer bills, not through a tax increase. The city evaluates sewer fees every three years, which were recently evaluated.
"This is a need, both for compliance reasons and capacity reasons. It's beneficial for the community moving forward and helps us meet the requirement from the federal government. And so the only opportunity here is whether or not we save taxpayer dollars by participating in a low interest rate loan or we have to find some other loan," Chris Lievsay said.
Mayor Lievsay said this route allows the city to tap into the state revolving funds, which offers low-interest loans for clean water projects.
The facility is a joint effort shared between Blue Springs and Grain Valley, but the City of Blue Springs maintains it. This is why Blue Springs residents are voting on the measure. Grain Valley is sharing up to 35% of the $65 million, according to Mayor Lievsay. He said how Grain Valley funds its portion is up to the city and its residents.
If the measure does not pass, Lievsay said the city will still have to find revenue to fund these projects to become EPA compliant by 2030.
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