Rain tax brings in nearly $500

Rain tax brings in nearly $500,000

Jeremy Nash news-herald.net

A year after Lenoir City instituted a stormwater fee, more money has been generated than spent by the city, but officials say that’s part of the plan.

The fee was implemented July 1, 2017, and last year generated about $493,000, Maggie Hunt, city representative, said, with the first year ending with $197,000 in the cash account. About $100,000 went to reserves.

“There’s a lot to stormwater,” Hunt said. “Of course, everything’s really stormwater if you look at it. Everything coming off that street is stormwater. We’re just building our budget and our fund. One year, I think we’ve done pretty good in one year. In the end of the year with $200,000 is not bad.”

This year the city has budgeted $550,605. That includes $412,394 in wages, $1,500 for education and training and $50,000 for drainage and stormwater maintenance, Hunt said.

According to the budget, the city could have a surplus of $81,133 and an ending fund balance of $265,183.

Greg Buckner, city stormwater manager, said he is looking at the big picture by setting money aside each year in case of emergencies with an infrastructure system that’s 90 years old in some areas. He knows repairs will need to be made.

“The reason for setting it up as a utility is not to spend every dollar that comes in doesn’t go out,” Buckner said. “What you ultimately want to do, and the difference with it being set up as a utility instead of tax-based is you want to carry ultimately as much money of that fund over year to year as you can so that you build up a nice cushion. As in any utility, whether it’s gas or electric, you know that you’re going to have to make major repairs down the road and the reason for carrying that money over and have it set up as a utility is to have that cushion set up.”

The total fluctuates, but Hunt estimates average monthly revenue from the fee is about $43,000.

Lenoir City has been classified as a Phase II municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) by TDEC since 2008, Buckner said, and for years has absorbed the cost.

“Everything was coming out of the general fund,” Hunt said. “Well, something like that needs to stand on its own. It’s more of a utility is the way we look at it. Water, sewer, they stand on their own. Sanitation stands on its own. We collect and it comes over and it pays the expense on the sanitation and that’s it. Stormwater, we have so many employees that are in the stormwater fund. We can only pay for stuff that we do in stormwater. I can’t pay a police officer out of stormwater.”

Five additional employees will be paid through stormwater this year, which now totals six positions including Buckner, Hunt said.

“We had to look at it over the year to see how many we could put in the stormwater,” Hunt said. “If they’re working 80 percent stormwater and 20 percent street then, of course, they’re going to be a stormwater employee. We just don’t have a department, ‘OK, this is what you do.’ That is what we’re getting to. We’re getting to, ‘OK, all you do is work in stormwater and that’s where we’re going to put you,’ and that’s where we came up with at least five of them.”

MS4 compliance requires the city to meet certain measures, according to Kim Schofinski, deputy communications director for TDEC. The requirements include:

• Conduct public education and outreach to inform residents about the impact polluted stormwater runoff can have on water quality.

• Provide opportunities for residents to participate in program development and implementation, including effectively publicizing public hearings and/or encourage resident representation on a management panel.

• Develop and implement a plan to detect and eliminate illicit discharges to the storm sewer system.

• Develop, implement and enforce an erosion and sediment control program for construction activities that disturb one or more acres.

• Develop, implement and enforce a program to address discharges of post-construction stormwater runoff from new development and redevelopment areas.

• Develop and implement a program with the goal of preventing or reducing pollutant runoff from municipal operations, which must include municipal staff training on pollution prevention measures and techniques.

“Lenoir City has a 75-year-old or older sewer services, particularly in the downtown area, and I’m not talking about just the businesses either, I’m talking about the residents in the older part of Lenoir City,” Tony Aikens, city mayor, said. “We have to address those needs. We have to continue every year. We can’t wait until something breaks for us to go in there and start major repairs. If we do, it would cost thousands and thousands of dollars and potentially have a property tax rate increase and that’s something that I’ve been committed on trying not to have. I want to think it’s going well.”

If a two-block radius of infrastructure in downtown went out, Buckner estimated repair costs would be about $400,000.

Buckner over the past year has outlined previously unmapped old infrastructure so it could be digitized.

Now plans are to move to the next phase with help from Fulghum MacIndoe to convert stormwater infrastructure into a digital format, although a timeframe for completion could not be given. Lenoir City Council on Monday approved work authorization No. 3 with Fulghum MacIndoe not to exceed $5,000.

“After we get done with the mapping phase, the next phase of that part of it is to go back and rate the materials there and take pictures, if it’s having failure on this side,” Buckner said. “Then you step back and try to look at a five-year plan of stuff you’re going to fix. You’re going to look at a 10-year plan. ... The next phase of this is when we get it put into the computer model, is to be able to go back and look at the pockets that are missing and either I have to — I’m hoping I’ve got a drawing of it somewhere that shows some of it, if not I’ll have to go out and hand draw those portions.”

Education is also a focus. With help from an intern from AmeriCorps, city officials Oct. 26 will speak with at least 120 Lenoir City High School students about how streams become polluted over time. Officials will also host a stream assessment day with other municipalities, which Buckner described as a “refresher course” from TDEC.

Buckner also pointed toward a stream cleanup day as a way to spread awareness, although a day has not been decided.

“That was one thing that kept kind of getting pushed to the side because if you ain’t got $3,000-$4,000 to go buy the materials that you need to cover that — you need a tent,” Buckner said. “If it’s too hot, you want a tent to get in and out of shelter, if it’s raining. You’re going to have to provide bottled water for that day. I mean there’s a lot of little things that just keep adding up.”

Buckner hopes building funds year-to-year will eventually help city officials look at “big projects.”

“I would like to say 10 years from now, and although I know that it doesn’t affect as many people, if you live next to an area that floods, and trust me I have been there as a homeowner in the past. If you live next to a place that floods, that’s the most prominent thing in your head,” Buckner said. “Every time it rains you’re sweating bullets.

“... If you’re only setting $50,000 or $100,000 back each year, I mean those are costly repairs and I would like to think that well after I’m gone, somebody that’s looking at making those repairs,” he added. “You won’t capture that kind of money while I’m here because you’re talking about serious money at that point. Some of that is available through grant money but it’s matching grant. So if you’re looking at a $1 million, $500,000 of that comes from the city.”

Buckner believes getting to certain projects will simply take time.

“The public education side, the mapping of the infrastructure, the repair work after a storm, preparing for a storm, running the street sweepers, milling the roads, I mean all of those are aspects, and when you add all that money most of that we were already spending out without it being funded,” Buckner said. “We get more and more complaints every year, not about the utility fee, after a storm.

When somebody’s culvert’s not functioning, the public education side rises with the program. So when people realize that, hey, you’re supposed to be doing this, not the city ever tried not to, it’s like a complete learning step. They’re learning as we’re learning.”