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Coolville Gets Grant For Sewage Treatment Project

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Another piece of the funding package needed for Coolville's sewage treatment project has fallen into place, and now village officials are awaiting final word on another grant before a construction contract is awarded.

The Ohio Development Services Agency announced Friday that the village has been awarded at $600,000 Community Development Block Grant for the project.

Nathan Davis, rural development specialist with the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, said the village has already been awarded $5.9 million loan through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's Water Pollution Loan Fund. He said that $2.7 million of that amount will come with principal forgiveness (essentially a grant), with the remaining $3.2 million a zero-interest loan.

He said there is preliminary approval of a $250,000 grant from the Ohio Water Development Authority.

Village Fiscal Officer James Ford said the village is awaiting final word on the Ohio Water Development Authority grant before awarding a construction contract. He said the village opened construction bids Aug. 9, and those bids are good for 90 days.

If the project goes forward as expected, monthly sewer bills for residents would be about $50, Ford said.

Davis said the total project cost is about $6.77 million, which includes the design costs.

Village residences and businesses currently use individual septic tanks. The village has been working on a sewage treatment project for more than a decade.

Davis said some of the septic systems are not working, and some residences don't have them. He said the Ohio EPA has not yet ordered the village to install a treatment system, but only because Coolville has been making an effort to get a project underway.

"That certainly would have been the next step," Davis said. "All EPA had to do was type it up."

Several years ago the village was considering construction of a centralized treatment plant. However, the project put out to bid is for a decentralized system similar to the one installed a few years ago in Amesville, according to Ford.

Adam Voris, of EMH&T Engineering, said the system will have three treatment sites at different locations in the village. Sewer lines will be built leading from residences and businesses to the treatment sites that are essentially large septic tanks that will do preliminary treatment. Voris said a recirculating filter and ultraviolet light will be used for final disinfection.

Voris said construction is expected to begin in December and take 18 months to complete, meaning it will be summer of 2015 before the project is finished.