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After three years of trying the Bourbon County Commission and the Bourbon County Sewer District No. 1 has been informed that the Kansas Department of Commerce will be funding a Community Development Block Grant in the amount of $500,000 for the construction of a sanitary sewer system at Lake Fort Scott.
To help cover the cost of the $2,280,000 project, the county also received a Letter of Conditions from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development stating it would provide additional funding in the amount of a grant for $907,000 as well as a loan in the amount of $751,000 with an interest rate of 3.25 percent. The loan will be paid for over a 40-year period by the lot owners at Lake Fort Scott.
Bourbon County Sanitarian Tom McNeil said that purpose of the sewer system is to prevent the county's drinking water from being contaminated by leaking septic tanks.
To provide the community with more details of the project, an informational meeting for all Lake Fort Scott lot owners will be held at 10 a.m., Feb. 6, at the Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center at Fort Scott Community College, 2108 Horton St.
Stuart Porter from the engineering firm of Schwab-Eaton, Fort Scott City and Bourbon County Commissioners, and State environmental agency representatives will be making a project presentation followed by a question and answer session.
Construction on the project would be completed by late 2011.
Comments
Bourbon County officials are holding a public hearing on Friday 2/12 at 10:30 a.m. to hear opinions and questions regarding the proposed sewer system to service the lots at Lake Fort Scott. Over the course of this last week (after receiving notification of such hearings), it has become abundantly clear that there is a loud voice saying NO to this proposal. For some reason, the county commissoners seem to be dead set on forcing this issue upon the residents who will incur a hefty burden to pay for this service. We have been told this has to do with environmental concerns with our current holding tank systems (which in general are doing a fine job), the contaimination levels of the drinking supply to the city of Fort Scott (yet no reports indicate that this is true) and the need to bring us into the 21st century. I personally cannot rationalize the expense to my household - which will be in the thousands of dollars - to hook up to the main sewer line, purchase and maintain a grinder pump, run electrical lines, and then pay a monthly fee on top of that. Nor can I understand how the State of Kansas, who is having difficulty balancing a budget, has the funds to put towards a project that is not necessary. A strong majority of residents do NOT want sewer service. We need our voices to be heard in the City, County and yes....even in the Capitol to make it clear that the sewer project is unjustified, waste of taxpayers money, and fiscially irresponsible.