Minutes 04-13-2021 Virtual Work Session

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24 Travis Myren said this project would take sewer under the interstate to serve the parcels in Growth Area A in the Buckhorn Area Plan. He said the debt service on the project is repaid with article 46 sales tax money. Chair Price asked if clarification could be provided on the districts shown on the map. Travis Myren said Area D3 on this map is Area A in the Buckhorn Area Plan. He said there is also a lift station upgrade shown on the map near Gravelly Hill Middle School. Chair Price asked if the total is $1.2 million into area D3 on the map. Travis Myren said yes. Commissioner Fowler asked if this is an old map, or if this is something with which people are familiar. Travis Myren said Area A has always been in the Economic Development District (EDD). Commissioner Bedford asked for some history about the sewer in this area. Craig Benedict said the project started with a sewer lift system near Gravelly Hill Middle School that provided a gravity system that went up to the D1 parcel. He said a stub was left out near the interstate to take it up to the D3 area when development required it. He said a few years ago a 16-inch water line was installed under the interstate to serve D3 from D1. He said there is gravity sewer and the sewer lift station in the area, which was not stubbed out until the program was phased. He said this is Phase 3, and is expensive. Chair Price asked if Craig Benedict could explain the residential areas. Craig Benedict said originally the gold areas on the map used to flow 3.5 miles over to Hillsborough causing expensive sewer rates. He said in order to stabilize the rates there, a new engineering program was developed to change the flow from Hillsborough to Mebane, near the E2 parcel super sub regional lift station that can handle the flow of central Efland and the majority of the EDD properties along the way. He said the out-of-town Mebane rates for Efland are lower than that of Hillsborough. He said 1.5 to 2 years ago, all of the sewer, gravity, and lift station assets were transferred from Efland, where it was under the county's cost, to Mebane. He said Mebane maintains these assets. Commissioner Hamilton said she is concerned because the board has not completed the Buckhorn Area Plan study, but she feels it is being discussed as though it has done so. She said this can be confusing for residents who are concerned about the decisions the board is going to make. She said she is unsure what the return on investment has been on the water and sewer in the existing projects, and what is expected in the future. She said there are other things for which the Article 46 sales tax can be used. She asked if more information could be provided on the return before making decisions on further water and sewer in this area. Chair Price said there is little context on what is in each area on the map. Chair Price asked if Buckhorn-Mebane EDD Phase 2 is different plan than the county's Buckhorn EDD. She asked if the arrow pointing to 1 is part of A. Craig Benedict said he would provide that information to the board. He said it was about a two-mile extent of sewer that went all the way from D1 to A, and into Mebane. He said this zone is part of phase 2. Chair Price asked if it was Phase 2 of the Mebane-Buckhorn EDD or the county's Buckhorn EDD. Craig Benedict said the engineering program from Efland to Mebane was called the Buckhorn-Mebane Economic Development Infrastructure plan. He said he will provide more specificity for each of the phases to explain how it all ties together. He said it was done in phases so there was less upfront money. Chair Price asked if the map could be labeled more clearly in order to understand which phases are parts of which plan.