The Mount Vernon City Council adopted a resolution on March 9 to communicate its support of a $5 million city application for federal funding to make enhancements to the wastewater treatment system.
The council's action is intended to help secure resources for improvements to the city's wastewater infrastructure. The funding, if received, would contribute to ongoing efforts to upgrade essential public services.
"We were in the pipeline to receive uh $5 million in the 'One Big Beautiful bill. But because of appropriations fights in D.C., other community projects were backlogged and we were in the first round out," Safety Service Director Tanner Salyers said, according to a video recording of the meeting. He also said Rep. Troy Balderson has worked diligently with the city on the application for federal funds and that Sen. Bernie Moreno's office asked the city to include them during the next round of funding because they are willing to help.
Salyers also mentioned the community project funding has had some "dirty" names in the past, such as earmarks. He explained that the city asks for these community funds in a similar way as it does for state capital funding, though he described the process with federal funding as more tedious.
"The worst they can do is say no," Salyers stated.
Salyers further said that updated design documents have been submitted with their application and noted that while much attention has been given recently to other municipal projects, Arcadis of Akron, Ohio, and Kokosing Industrial from Fredericktown have been working on designs for an approximately $50 million wastewater treatment plant project. He clarified that this is an enterprise-funded project supported by ratepayers rather than taxpayers.
"Your support on this is basically just a green light that you support them giving us $5 million. You may say it's all tax dollars. Well, we'd like to bring some of those federal tax dollars back to Mount Vernon," Salyers added.
