Newberry City Commission authorizes $10 million in bonds for wastewater treatment, leases 15 acres to biosolids composting operation

BY DAVID LIGHTMAN

NEWBERRY, Fla. – At their June 24 Regular Meeting, the Newberry City Commission heard a presentation on lead pipe inspections, addressed concerns about $120,000 the City loaned to the Newberry charter school, authorized a $10 million bond-based credit line to be used for wastewater projects, and agreed to lease 15 acres of land to LifeSoils, a company that will turn yard waste and wastewater biosolids into a high-quality soil amendment.

Honoring Travis Parker

Mayor Pro Tem Mark Clark chaired the meeting in Mayor Jordan Marlowe’s absence and began the meeting by issuing a proclamation declaring Thursday, June 27, as Travis Parker Day. Clark explained that Parker had just resigned from a ten-year career with the City of Newberry, and his most recent position was Director of Capital Projects and Facilities. Clark said Parker provided invaluable guidance during his time with the City, and they wished to show their appreciation and honor him.

After receiving his certificate, Parker said, “I do want to thank you all for having me for almost the last decade. I appreciate the support, always have. Wish you continued success… Appreciate everybody. Thank you.” Parker is leaving his position to take a job as Facilities Director for Alachua County.

Lead line service inventory

Katherine Van Zant, a Professional Engineer with the Florida Wastewater Association, gave a presentation on the City of Newberry’s efforts to comply with an FDEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) mandate to conduct a lead service line inventory. She explained that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has made a new regulation requiring utilities to inspect the water lines going into every building across the country for lead, and the FDEP is implementing this regulation in Florida.

Van Zant said, “All the (utility) systems have to provide this documentation by October 16th of this year under the lead and copper rule revisions. This was especially spurred on by Flint, Michigan and what’s happened… The idea is to make sure that we know any lead lines that are happening in our state and affecting especially our children.” She said utilities have to document the types of lines going up to each water meter and from each water meter to the building it serves; lead, galvanized steel, copper, and PVC are the most common types of lines.

Van Zant showed the following slide which details the four steps that must be followed for each inspection, including notifying any residents who may be in potential danger.

Van Zant said photographs must be taken of each inspection and kept for twelve years, and any lines installed after 1989 should be lead-free. She added, “The good news is, with the lines that are being documented in Florida, we are not finding lead lines. It’s very, very rare to find lead lines.”

Clark asked, “Does this program have to be completed by October of 2024?” Van Zant answered, “It does… So far (in Newberry) they’ve done 2,257 lines, and they only have 513 left to go.”

Amendment 4 presentation

Commissioner Tim Marden introduced Newberry resident and Chair of Protect Human Life Florida, Mark Minck. He discussed several ambiguities in the language of the abortion amendment (Amendment 4) that will be on the ballot in November. More information can be found at his group’s website, https://humanlifefl.com .

Budget and question about charter school loan

Commissioners passed an updated version of the annual budget. During comments, a member of the public raised a question about the $120,000 that has been allocated to spend on legal and consultant fees to prepare the Newberry charter school application ( see our story here ). She asked what guarantee the City has that the $120,000 will ever be repaid since there is no contract.

Assistant City Manager Dallas Lee answered, “The plan is to draft a management operations agreement with the 501(c)(3) that would require repayment back to the City within a set time frame. That agreement is part of the task the City Attorney’s office is working on, to draft. And then, like I said, we have a charter school finance expert who is drafting the current budget.”

Bonds for water/wastewater

City Attorney Scott Walker introduced a resolution to authorize the sale of $10 million worth of Series 2024 bonds, to be used to establish a line of credit with a lender to upgrade and maintain the City’s water and wastewater systems, including building a new wastewater treatment plant. Dallas Lee said the City originally applied for $20 million in bonds, but that amount was reduced to $10 million while their application was under review by the FDEP. Lee said $10 million should be sufficient for what they need to do; they had previously considered asking for only $10 million, and the Commission approved increasing it to $20 million in April after advice from consultants.

Commissioner Marden said, “This is a force-placed improvement that we have to make on our system, required by FDEP, and now [FDEP is] going back on… what we’ve been trying to do, and this is just bureaucracy at its finest.”

Clark said, “Well, thankful to Seacoast, that they kept their terms. They could have really done something different.”

Responding to a question from Commissioner Monty Farnsworth, Dallas Lee answered that if $10 million isn’t enough, they could borrow more money by going through the same process again with FDEP.

The resolution passed 4-0.

LifeSoils lease

City Manager Mike New introduced the next item, a ground lease agreement with LifeSoils, LLC for a 15-acre site at the Newberry Environmental Park, to be used for a composting operation.

New explained that biosolids and effluent are the two by-products of wastewater treatment. Effluent is released back into the soil with sprinklers. Biosolids have been used as fertilizer, but new regulations have made this a costly solution because the biosolids must now be treated before they can be used. New said staff evaluated different alternatives for biosolids disposal, and they found LifeSoils to be very cost-effective.

New explained that LifeSolids takes the yard waste picked up by garbage collectors and combines it with biosolids in a composting process, resulting in a high-quality soil amendment for turf and other crops. He said this amendment increases water retention in soil, increases nutrients, and enhances resistance to pests and diseases. New said Newberry is offering the land, biosolids, and yard waste as their part of the partnership. He added that this facility, to be located on 15 acres on County Road 337 next to the Advanced Water Treatment Facility, can serve up to a 75-mile radius and still remain cost-effective.

New said the $0 lease is for 30 years and can be renewed for three 10-year periods, a total of 60 years, with a 36-month notice of termination; LifeSoils must meet its contractual obligations to process yard waste and biosolids, or the lease may be canceled.

New concluded, “There’s some real value to our residents that biosolids and yard debris and this compost will end up being a beneficial soil amendment rather than as a waste product.” He said part of the agreement is to provide 100 cubic yards of compost annually to the City, for use at public facilities, and it’s already being used at most major athletic fields because of its high quality. Addressing any possible concerns about odors, New said there will be a 30-foot vegetative buffer on all sides, but aerobic composting does not normally smell bad the way anaerobic composting does.

Responding to a question from Commissioner Farnsworth, New said Newberry could receive biosolids on trucks from places like Lake City, GRU, and High Springs. Farnsworth answered, “I’m not so sure I would vote ‘Yes’ for this at this point in time… I’m just concerned regarding the potential of all this biosolid coming into the Newberry area from other cities and the possibility of any kind of contamination to our water.”

New said, “We don’t anticipate any organic material making its way into the aquifer.” Farnsworth responded, “We don’t anticipate a lot of stuff sometimes.”

New said FDEP will always be actively enforcing state regulations, and they monitor wells for any pollutants. He said it is unlikely that wastewater rates will decrease, but the agreement should help to minimize future increases; also, the 100 cubic yards of compost every year will help the City reduce irrigation and soil amendment costs.

No members of the public commented. The lease was approved 4-0 during a roll call vote.

Commission comment

During commission comment, Commissioner Tony Mazon said the Vibes on the Lawn event was a hit, with vendors traveling from as far away as South Florida, and there weren’t any problems with traffic or noise complaints. Mazon said, “We look forward to another year.”

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