During Tuesday night’s Rockingham City Council meeting the council approved its grant agreement with the Golden Leaf Foundation for $664,424 to be used for the East Rockingham Sewer Improvements.

In addition to the Golden Leaf Grant, the city has also been awarded $800,000 in Community Development Block Grant Recovery funds to fund a portion of the East Rockingham Sewer improvements project in the Jefferson Park area. The grant agreement will be approved during the November council meeting.

The Golden Leaf grant will fund the main trunk line for a system that will ultimately provide sewer service to about 630 homes and businesses and eliminate the public health issues of failing septic tanks.

Because the engineering plans and drawings have already been completed for the project, city manager Monty Crump says once the last grant agreement is drawn, the city will combine the two projects and put them out for bids to make the money go further by cutting down on administrative costs, etc., by having one company do both.

“This is helping people with what’s been a devastating problem out there,” said council member Bennett Dean.

The council also agreed Tuesday night to a plan to proceed with the Ellerbe Wastewater Regionalization Project as outlined by the Lumber River Council of Governments.

The central issue for Ellerbe is closing their lagoon treatment system and eliminating the discharge into Tom’s Branch. With this new regionalization project, Ellerbe’s untreated sewer would be pumped across town through a force main to a new lift station on the south side of town. From there the sewer would be pumped to Rockingham through a force main along the Highway 220 corridor to the Rockingham lift station located at Hitchcock Creek.

Ellerbe’s estimate for this work is $3.4 million. The town will use local funds to match other grants and loans from various funding sources to accomplish its portion of the project.

Partnering in this project, Rockingham will take on the expense of upgrading and relocating the Hitchcock Creek lift station because it is in a flood plain and suffers from occasional flooding. The cost estimate for that work is about $500,000.

The county will also play a role in this project by increasing the size of the sewer line and providing access points along the Highway 220 corridor for new residential and commercial interests. This will be accomplished by increasing the line size, beyond the minimum level needed by Ellerbe, adding extra lift stations at the three interchanges, and gravity lines that will bring the sewage back to these lift stations. The estimated cost of that is $1.4 million.

Crump said if Ellerbe had to take on this project alone it would cost its taxpayers significantly by raising sewer rates to about $77 each month.

“I think this agreement says a lot about our cooperation with our local government agencies,” councilman Steven Morris. “It’s a win-win for all of us.”

Crump added that grant money should be available for a project of this size.

“This project is a slam-dunk to get funding because of the economic components,” Crump said.

Also during Tuesday night’s meeting, City Clerk Johnsye Lundsford announced her retirement.

In a letter to the city council, Lundsfod wrote, “It’s been a pleasure to serve as the first female and African American City Clerk. When I started my career in January 1979 retirement seemed an endless distance away and yet here it is.”

Lundsford has worked for the city for 30 years and has been city clerk for the last 10. Her last day on the job will be Dec. 30.

During manager’s comments, Crump said the city received it’s Powell Bill Allocation funds this year and they were just slightly less than anticipated. This year they received $264,592. The Powell Bill funds are used for sidewalks, paving and paying a few city salaries.

Rockingham Police Chief Robert Voorhees announced the department has received two grants totaling $27,000 from the Governor’s Highway Safety Program to purchase traffic safety equipment.

In other business the board also approved the declaration of surplus of a hose at the Rockingham Fire Department. The hose, no longer needed at the city fire station will be donated to a volunteer fire station.

And city planner John Massey told the council that many people had been asking about the Golden Corral building on 74 and announced that it is being renovated to become a Hibachi grill and sushi bar.

“It’s good to see a building being put back to good use,” Mayor Gene McLaurin said.

The board’s next meeting is Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Rockingham City Hall.

n Eren Tataragasi can be reached at (910)997-3111 or etataragasi@yourdailyjournal.com.