Tellico Village Property Owners Association is requesting Loudon County Commission provide approval on a $2.1 million grant application for a stormwater upgrade project.
The grant would fund one piece of a series of proposed projects that would be a major upgrade to the sewer and wastewater capacity of Tellico Village.
TVPOA Public Works Director Clayton Taylor said the project would increase the capacity of the stormwater system and create a holding tank to prevent connected systems from being overwhelmed during heavy rains.
Taylor said the line running from Tellico Village to the junction of a Loudon Utilities Board line with a line to the water treatment plant can’t handle the volume of water during heavy rains. A holding tank would store excess water until the LUB system can catch up, he said.
The American Rescue Plan grant requires a 35 percent match and is administered by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
TDEC spokesperson Kim Schofinski said Loudon County’s ARP allocation is $4.01 million. The deadline for submitting an ARP non-competitive grant proposal is Nov. 1.
“The county will not ‘lose’ access to these funds until that date if no application is submitted,” she said.
The source of the funding is state ARP funds allocated to TDEC for water/sewer/stormwater grants by the Financial Stimulus Accountability Group.
The county either must be the grant applicant and apply on behalf of utilities or provide its funds to eligible cities. In the latter scenario, that may limit the ability for utilities not associated with cities to access the funds, Schofinski said.
Tellico Area Services System has requested the county endorse a $1.9 million TDEC grant from the same source to extend the sewer system in Greenback. Commission voted last month to allow TASS to apply for the grant. Commission approval was required because Loudon County is a partner in TASS.
Commissioner Van Shaver said he voted to approve the Greenback project because it would help TASS, an entity in which the county has a vested interest. The TVPOA project would be to the benefit of a private development, he said.
“I wouldn’t vote to enter into an agreement with a private development,” Shaver said.
TDEC guidelines for projects that can be funded by the grants specify they should be related to drinking water, stormwater or sewer, Mitzi Lane, chief operating officer for TVPOA, told commissioners at a workshop last week.
The county does not operate a water and sewer system. Because the funds are allocated by TDEC to the county, it would be necessary for the county to agree to the TVPOA application for the grant, she said.
The $2.1 million requested by TVPOA — in combination with the Greenback project — would account for all $4 million of the TDEC funds. If funding is not used by a specific date, it is forfeited.
Commission Chairman Henry Cullen, who represents Tellico Village, said he supports the project and would like to help. He said he forwarded information to the county attorney for his opinion.
“These grants have a lot of tentacles attached,” Cullen said. “I want to make sure we are in compliance before we do anything.”
Benefits of the project would include giving TVPOA time to fix inflow and infiltration, safety from overflow at the main lift station and reduction of residential alarms. There would be less overtime for employees working the system during rain events and less stress on the pumps.
Commissioner Gary Whitfield said the only problem he could imagine is if Loudon Utilities Board or Lenoir City Utilities Board decided they also wanted some of the funding.
LUB understands and supports in principle the TVPOA project, Loudon City Manager Ty Ross said.
According to a presentation at the workshop, TVPOA is looking at a much larger upgrade to its water, sewer and wastewater system. The presentation included analysis of system and pump capacity during dry weather flows and wet weather flows.
The initial phase involves a series of projects, including the addition of a 500,000-gallon holding tank at a cost of about $700,000, optimization and upgrading of pumping stations at Mialaquo and Toqua, an upgrade of the main lift station and a possible upgrade to pump capacity at Tanasi Cove. The estimated cost for these projects could be about $4 million.
The Tanasi Cove project would be completed as much as 10 years after the other projects based on improvements achieved in water capacity with the first projects. The necessity of the additional projects might depend on home construction.
TVPOA is also looking at water consumption and availability several decades into the future. The presentation on the master plan compares the needs under the former Cooper Development plan with the new 2022 plan.
Under the Cooper plan, homes would be small on smaller lots. Lawn care involved wooded lots with no automatic lawn sprinkler systems and build out was projected at 80 percent.
Under the 2022 plan, homes are larger but still on the same small lots. Lawn care involves turf grass with automatic lawn sprinkler systems and build out would be 100 percent of plotted lots.
Looking at projections, the presentation suggests water demand can be met with constraints but stresses there is a finite amount of water available. Odd/even lawn irrigation is recommended.
The master plan involves the first phase featuring new pump stations at a cost of $4 million to be completed by 2025. The second phase would be completed by 2035 at a cost of about $9 million and includes new pump stations and new 12-inch and 16-inch pipelines.
The estimated costs do not include the acquisition of land and easements that require additional legal and surveying costs. The plan recommends a dedicated program manager to oversee the projects.
