$30M sewer project nearly complete

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By Wayne Allen

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Scioto County Sanitary Engineer Joe Delong reported earlier this week the Minford Sanitary Sewer project is nearly complete.

The origins of this project dates back to 2012 when the county was awarded a $15 million grant from USDA Rural Development, and a $15 million low-interest loan from the state of Ohio office of rural development. A little over a year ago state and local officials gathered to break ground on the project. Among those in attendance included, U.S. Department of Agriculture Ohio Rural Development State Director Tony Logan.

“Our objective is to create sustainable communities … and provide them with vital infrastructure and this is a very good example of that. There is no growth without sanitary sewer and water, that’s true across the country and now it’s true for Minford,” Logan said.

Logan believed the idea behind projects like the Minford Sanitary Sewer was to enhance real estate value and to make the community more enticing for businesses to stay, build or expand.

“Perhaps more than anything else we hope to use these projects to inspire the next generation of youth in Scioto County to stay in the county raise their families and contribute to the economy. We do this with vital infrastructure like water and sanitary sewer.” Logan said.

Delong said there are still some work to be done on the project, but said it is now significantly complete.

The Minford Sanitary Sewer project included 50 miles of sewer, 19 pump stations and a new wastewater treatment plant. Once installed the system will serve 1,300 residences, businesses, churches and schools. Delong believes the system should be running and residents could start hooking up by mid-September. He said his office, along with contractors, are working on a punch list of items left to complete.

“We’ve got all of the pipes in, we’re waiting for power to the pump stations and we’ve got a couple of lines we want to look at again. We’re paving some roads now, doing some cleanup and fixing some complaints,” Delong said.

With the completion of the Minford Sanitary Sewer Project, it will mark the second sewer project to be completed by the office this year. Earlier this year the Eden Park Sanitary Sewer Project was completed.

When it comes to other sewer projects in the near future, Delong said, “The USDA is going to want to make sure we can make our monthly payments, so it may be a couple of years before they would want to participate (in funding a project). In the mean time we’ll see where we should go next.”

Wayne Allen can be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 1933 or on Twitter @WayneallenPDT

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