Councilman volunteers to work on capital improvement plan

COLUMBUS — The town of Columbus is working on updating its capital improvement plan for future infrastructure projects to its water, sewer and storm water systems.

Columbus Councilman Robert Williamson volunteered to help the town complete its next required CIP.

The last CIP for Columbus was completed in 2013 and the previous plan was done in 2007.

Williamson told council during its December meeting he has started by looking at previous plans and summarizing all the recommendations from the 2007 and 2013 plans.

“Out of all those items, there’s been two to three projects complete,” Williamson said.

He said he is now looking at which ones may be in progress, which ones may be budgeted and which ones need to be budgeted.

“That’s the start of the CIP; it is to build on what you already know,” he said.

Williamson talked about how projects increase in cost the longer the town waits to complete them. For example, the town’s 500,000-gallon water tank was in both CIPs in 2007 and in 2013. The cost of that project rose from $150,000 in 2007 to $500,00 in 2013.

Williamson also said the weak link he has found so far in his research is that Columbus received a $50,000 grant from North Carolina and paid $5,600 for a storm water plan. He spoke of how important it is to find the report and said inflow and infiltration of storm water ends up costing the town money because the town spends money treating water that does not need to be treated. He said the town had the study done in 2011.

“Having that study is critical,” Williamson said. “Otherwise, you have to reinvent that.”

Williamson also spoke of how much storm water is coming into the plant on normal days, compared to heavy rain days like the area has seen lately.

Public Works Director James Smith said over 500,000 gallons came into the plant on a rainy day recently, while typically there is about 150,000 to 180,000 gallons per day coming into the plant. So, about 350,000 gallons more than normal, Smith said.

“When we talk about inflow and infiltration, that’s a big number,” Williamson said. “Why would we pay to treat storm water as if it was sewage? That’s expensive.”