By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG – Ogdensburg City Council approved a resolution Monday that would allow the city to borrow $5.2 million for improvements at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, but Manager Sarah Purdy said she won’t be taking action anytime soon.

Purdy said the city needed to give approval to borrow the money if it wanted a chance at securing a Water Infrastructure Improvement Grant that could cover up to 25 percent or $1.3 million of the $5.2 million WWTP project.

A consultant from C2ae Engineering explained that having a bond resolution in place greatly enhances the city’s chance of acquiring the grant. He said the resolution allows the city the borrow the money, but does not require it.

Councilor Michael Morley voted against the measure due to concerns regarding unanswered questions regarding the grant. Councilor Daniel Skamperle, while not present at the meeting asked that the council to delay action on the bond approval.

However, due to deadlines expressed by the consultant and city manager, the city council voted 5-1 to allow the city manager to issue $5.2 million in serial bonds.

Purdy said at this point the city is getting its ducks in a row to secure the grant. She said that while she could technically borrow the money now, any to decision to do so would be ran by the council first.

"We aren't going out tomorrow to bond for the money. This is more of a step in the process toward getting the grant," she said.

She said she was also hopeful that the actually amount the city would need to borrow would come in at less than $5.2 million.

The city hired C2ae Engineering to create a capital improvement plan that prioritizes needed upgrades based on needs and potential savings

According to the report an additional $5.2 million will be needed improvements in the near future.

The highest priority items include:

• Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and overall electrical distribution systems – Reduces the ability to operate sequential wastewater treatment processes timely and effectively; requires significant manual time and attention to address; increases potential for effluent violating discharge limits

• Primary and secondary digesters and gas capture system – Prevents the capture of methane gas to convert and reuse as energy for the treatment process and overall facility demands which could be used to reduce utility costs

• Sludge filter press equipment – Reduces dewatering effectiveness leaving a high-moisture content that increases costs to process, handle and dispose of sludge

• Comminutor – Allows larger solids and debris to clog process equipment and reduce overall treatment process effectiveness

Purdy says some of the improvements will provide returns on investment due to efficiencies. She said the city’s plan to contract with the Development Authority of the North Country for management a the plant, could be beneficial in seeking grants and implementing upgrades prioritized in the capital improvement plan.

The executive summary for the plan is available at city hall.

The wastewater treatment plan needs more than $10 million in improvements, the chief of which is a mandatory $5.3 million project to construct an 800,000 combined sewer overflow equalization tank that must be completed by 2019.