Buena Vista has been notified that it is to receive $2.3 million in federal funding to begin the process of upgrading the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
The funding through an Environmental Protection Agency water improvement grant was included in the recently adopted federal budget. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner sponsored the legislation that secured the funding.
City Manager Jason Tyree and former Mayor Tyson Cooper went to Washington, D.C., in the fall to meet with Virginia’s senators in reference to the city’s application for the funding. The city was assisted in the application process by Nick Crockett of Capital Government Solutions, the city’s Washington, D.C. consultant.
Tyree said he hopes to use the funding to get started on Phase I of planned upgrades to the WWTP. Tyree and Wayne Handley, who will become interim city manager when Tyree steps down, were to meet with Hunter Young, the city’s engineering consultant, Tuesday afternoon to discuss the best use of the funding.
New, more stringent Department of Environmental Quality regulations that went into effect recently are putting the WWTP out of compliance for certain nutrient levels. The hope is that the Phase I upgrades will bring the city into compliance.
“Wayne and I will be meeting with our engineers to determine the most strategic use of these funds,” said Tyree Tuesday morning. “Importantly, this funding does not require a local match and is not tied to other components of the project. Our goal is to leverage these dollars in a way that makes the greatest impact – ideally moving us into compliance or as close to compliance as possible.”
The city has long been looking to make major upgrades to the aging WWTP, which is now 44 years old. Grant opportunities are being pursued to help with the costs, which are expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Also involved in planning for the upgrades to the WWTP is George Bain, Buena Vista’s acting director of public works. Bain, a retired local government administrator who most recently worked in Gloucester, has been on the job since Dec. 1 and will be here through mid-March.
Tyree said it’s his hope that a new public works director will be hired before he leaves, also in mid-March. The city is accepting job applications for both the director of public works and director of parks and recreation through Feb. 27. Ed Armentrout recently resigned from the second of these positions.
