The Brandon Board of Education has officially endorsed a yes vote for sewers in the upcoming election.
During their Oct. 19 meeting, the board passed 5-0 a resolution in support of a sanitary sewer system in the Village of Ortonville. Board members Debbie Brady and Chris Yuchasz were absent.
The Brandon School District Resolution to Support the Ortonville Sanitary Sewer System reads:
‘Whereas, the citizens of the Village of Ortonville will vote (on Nov. 3, 2015) to commence a project to implement a sanitary sewer system project for the Village of Ortonville;
May it be resolved that the Brandon School District hereby conveys its support for this project.?
‘The sewer system is a cure as opposed to a Band-Aid,? said Board President Kevin McClellan prior to the board’s vote to pass the resolution. ‘We will have a user fee and you are all taxpayers. We will pay one way or the other. Without sewers, we will have to make modifications one way or the other. There is no ‘I choose none.? We support sewers in Ortonville.?
On Nov. 3, voters in the Village of Ortonville will settle for now the question of whether the village council will move forward with obtaining a proposed wastewater treatment system by approving a contract with Oakland County to issue bonds for the project.
If a majority of voters say yes, the village will seek a 40-year Rural Development Loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay for the project, which would put a special assessment of about $25,550 on each residential equivalency unit in the village limits. The typical home is one REU. Businesses, churches, and other buildings including the police substation, the fire hall, the post office, the village and township government offices, schools and more will have varying REUs.
District Superintendent Matt Outlaw said the district will have about 60 REUs if the sewers pass, which will include tie-ins for the Harvey Swanson and HT Burt complex on Varsity Drive, as well as Brandon Fletcher Intermediate School on South Street, and the middle school and high school located off Ortonville Road and outside the village limits, but within distance to connect to a village system.
‘If it does pass, we will have the same tie-in cost that other people have, but with 60 tie-ins, and we will work on infrastructure to get to the wastewater treatment system,? said Outlaw. ‘The tie-ins will cost us somewhere in the range of $1.5 million.?
Even with additional costs to connect the high school and middle school to the system up near Granger Road, preliminary numbers show the district being much better off financially joining a village wastewater treatment system than having to find their own remedy, added Outlaw.
If the sewer ballot measure does not pass, the district will still have to take action. The board has set aside more than $400,000 and plans to continue setting aside $200,000 per year to repair or replace the wastewater treatment plant currently serving the high school and middle school, which the Department of Environmental Quality has mandated must be fixed by November 2019.
The district has received estimates ranging between $2 million to $3 million for replacement of the wastewater treatment plant at just the high school and middle school. The district also needs to replace the wastewater treatment plant at Brandon Fletcher Intermediate School. If the sewer vote fails, the district will pay $250,000 to do so at BFIS.
Outlaw notes the Harvey Swanson Elementary complex has three septic fields and repairs to the system there cost the district $60,000 last year. Additionally, the Oakland County Water Resources Commission operates the district’s wastewater treatment plants and the district spends $80,000 per year to make sure they operate correctly.
‘We are definitely interested in the long-term solution,? said Outlaw. ‘We want a wholistic solution to water issues in our district.?
The school board was not alone in endorsing a yes vote for sewers this week. In a press release, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash announced he was joining Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson in supporting the Village of Ortonville’s efforts to pass the bond proposal.
‘For the long term health of the residents and families of Ortonville, as well as the economic vitality and future of the village, we need to replace failing septic systems with a modern sewer system,? said Nash. ‘This is a smart investment that will protect the integrity of Kearsley Creek and allow the community to thrive and prosper.?