A bond election for the purpose of replacing Seminole’s decades-old sewer plant is on the horizon, according to City Manager Steve Saxon.

The plant has been flagged with multiple violations from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and Saxon said the city has been spending anywhere from $350,000 to $500,000 each year in efforts to keep it up and running.

“We’re going to have to rally together and build a new sewer plant, in my opinion,” Saxon told the Seminole Utilities Authority during its regular meeting Tuesday night. “The DEQ is sending us a loud message: they’re ready for us to build a new plant.”

Saxon said multiple fixes have been made over the past 12-15 years to keep the plant “limping along,” but he doesn’t believe the DEQ will let the city continue to do that.

“I can’t remember the last time that the primary clarifier (one of the units that removes solids from waste-water) has worked. It’s been down for at least 10 years. It’s broken, it has structural failure underneath, and the arms can’t work with that structure failure. It’s not leaking, it’s just not in use,” Saxon said.

“The DEQ told us that our plant cannot continue to do what it was designed to do if that is out of service. Just rebuilding the primary clarifier alone is going to cost $750,000 to $1 million,” Saxon told the authority.

According to Saxon, the DEQ gave the city 30 days to bring the plant into compliance, but engineers say the agency will likely back off if the city submits plans to build a new plant.

No action was taken at Tuesday’ meeting, and Saxon said the first step in moving toward a bond election is to check with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for loans and/or grants.

“They’re 40-60 days away from awarding significant amounts of money, and we’re hoping they’ll give us a grant for a large part of the cost. Then we would take out a 40-year loan. Right now, it’s real inexpensive money, sitting at around 1.5 percent [interest],” Saxon said.

“We will then determine how much revenue we need to raise, then communicate that with our voters. We’re probably six months before we can move to an election,” Saxon added.

Ward III Councilman Cory Crabtree asked Saxon if taxes would increase if a new bond is approved, because “people are already complaining about high property taxes.”

Before Saxon could answer, Bill Wantland, who represents Ward I, interjected. “Tell them to go to Wisconsin where the property tax rate is five times what it is here,” Wantland stated. “I’m sick and tired of people whining about things here when it’s a lot worse in other places.”

According to Saxon, there is a “good probability” that the tax rate will remain level, but it all depends on the how much the plant will end up costing and the timing of the election.

The Utilities Authority is comprised of Seminole City Council members, and its meeting preceded the regular council meeting on Tuesday.

The meetings were held at the Reynolds Wellness Center rather the city library so social distancing could be practiced.