The Macon Board of Public Works will hold a town hall Tuesday on water and wastewater improvements, two weeks before city voters are scheduled to decide whether to allow up to $80 million in revenue bonds for the work.
The town hall starts at 6 p.m. at the Macon County Expo Center, 1303 S. Missouri St., according to a notice Macon Municipal Utilities posted Sunday evening. A quorum of the board will attend, and no votes will be taken, the notice says.
The Nov. 3 question asks Macon voters whether the city may issue up to $80 million in combined waterworks and sewerage system revenue bonds, repaid solely from system revenue. The question appears on the Macon County Clerk's sample ballot for the general election.
The ballot refers to a combined system, but the city's water and wastewater systems are separate, according to minutes of the council's Aug. 24 meeting. On Sept. 8, the City Council took up the first reading of an ordinance adding a section to the city code to combine the water and wastewater systems. The vote was 3-3, and the motion failed because it needed five yes votes, according to the council's minutes.
Council members Steve Olinger, Jerry Thompson, and Brent Bernhardt voted yes. Theresa Ulrich, Cheryl Blaise, and Chris Walk voted no, and Teresa Thrasher was absent.
At that meeting, resident Tony Petre urged the council to put the $50 million water project and the $30 million wastewater project before voters as two separate questions. Board of Public Works member David Ausmus said bond counsel recommended one question because two could result in one passing while the other failed, according to the minutes. Ausmus also said the wastewater plant is not expected to meet upcoming 2032 regulatory requirements without significant improvements.
Council agendas posted since then, for a Sept. 17 special meeting and the Oct. 13 regular meeting, list no further action on the ordinance. The utility's bond page, last updated Sept. 3, does not address the Sept. 8 vote.
At the Aug. 24 meeting where the council voted 7-0 to call the election, legal counsel advised that the city could combine the systems by ordinance before the election or pursue separate bond ordinances and ballot questions, according to minutes of that meeting.
The utility's bond page puts engineers' estimates at $48,651,000 for the water plant and $24,600,000 for the sewer plant, rounded up to $50 million and $30 million in the request. The water plant was built in 1966 and the sewer plant in 1960, according to the page.
Bills will go up in steps over the next few years, according to the page. At the final step, a household using 4,000 gallons a month would pay $52.66 more, $18.42 for water and $34.24 for sewer.