Kingston Springs mayor: Town assessing all options for aging sewer system

Kingston Springs Mayor Todd Verhoven reemphasized that the town is assessing all options to repair its aging sewer system, including selling the system to a private company.

"We're looking at all of the options for the town right now. We're looking at every single option that we can find to make rates not go up. This is an aging system. It's been neglected for a long time, and it doesn't have a lot of users on it, so we've got a lot of work to do," Verhoven said during the monthly Board of Commissioners meeting on Aug. 21. "Just know that as we do move forward and have more meetings – we're going to have some town hall meetings; we're going to have people here to speak on the system that are professionals – we're going to have as many options as we can to present you."

He continued, "We're not just going one direction or the other. We're going to try to find any option that works for you guys. It's not an [easy] fix. And I'm going to tell you that either way that we have to go is not going to be great. It's just because of the money that's going to have to have to be spent to repair it."

"But we're going to do it with you guys in mind. We're going to get your input. That's why we're going to do town halls. We want to hear from everybody. We want to know what you guys want, because at the end of the day, we represent you, not ourselves," he added.

Kingston Springs' raised sewer rates went into effect earlier this month.

The town – which has historically struggled to maintain its aging sewage treatment plant – said the increase is necessary to keep up with operating costs and ensure the sustainability of its sewer systems. A preservation group is currently suing the Town of Kingston Springs for its failing sewer system, which the group claims is discharging high levels of pollutants into the Harpeth River. 

During its Aug. 21 meeting, the town commissioners voted to deny a $2.735 million bid for its Sewer Manhole Rehabilitation project from Norris Brothers Excavating.

Kingston Springs City Manager John Lawless previously told the Gazette that the town believes much of its sewer problems are coming from the town's manholes. According to Lawless, the seals around the manholes are "poor at best." The town also found that the manholes have seepage areas.

The town's staff and consulting engineer recommended that the commissioners deny this first bid – which they believed to be nearly double the total estimated cost of the project. The town will rebid the project in hopes to get more competitive pricing and more bidders on the next round.

The town plans to use a $350,000 TDOT grant to fund the initial steps in this sewer manhole rehabilitation project.

The Town of Kingston Springs Board of Commissioners meets the  third Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. in City Hall.