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The Southampton County Board of Supervisors voted 6-0 on Dec. 17 to adopt a resolution allocating approximately $350,000 from the county’s unassigned fund balance to complete the remainder of the Boykins Sewer Rehab Project.

County Administrator Brian S. Thrower stated in a staff report to the board that the county intends to utilize American Rescue Plan Act funds to complete a portion of the project.

“However, we are requesting to use a small portion of our unassigned fund balance to complete the remainder of the project,” he stated. 

After noting the need for around $350,000 from fund balance to complete the needed improvements, he stated, “Completing the project in its entirety at this time is more cost-effective and financially prudent than waiting to complete it at another time in the future.”

Thrower then provided the following cost breakdown: 

• Manhole rehabilitation (90 VF) — $50,000;
• Sewer lateral rehab/replace (45 services) — $168,000; 
• CIPP Lining of gravity sewer mains (2,547 LF) — $102,000; and 
• Contingency — $30,000.

Thrower also noted that Jamie Weist, of engineering consultant Kimley-Horn, was present for the board’s Dec. 17 meeting to update the board on the Boykins Sewer Rehab Project.

Weist alluded to a time in the fall that he gathered with board members to talk about sewer.

“At the last meeting, you remember we had covered the balance of $2.4 million that you had received in ARPA money,” he said. “You also received just over $200,000 in interest from that money out of the account that it’s placed in, and so you’re dealing with roughly $2.6 million. And over the last couple of years, we’ve dwindled that down with projects related to water and sewer infrastructure improvements, which is what the grant money was given for, and we’re near the end of the ARPA obligation fund year where we have to obligate the remaining funds.

“Based on where we are right now, by the end of this year, by the end of this month, by the end of two weeks from now, we have to obligate an additional roughly $380,000 toward sewer work.”

He said they will be able to obligate the remaining ARPA funds, meet the federal requirement, and then they will have to spend it all by the end of 2025.

“We had Tri-State, our contractor, go out and TV-inspect the gravity sewers in Boykins — Main Street and Beaton Avenue,” he said. “And they accomplished that and finished that shortly after the last time we met, and they gave us all of the different closed-circuit TV inspection reports and videos that we watched through and reviewed.”

Weist said there were quite a few issues with the infrastructure that needed to be repaired. 

“There were several point repairs that needed to be done, there were several manholes that needed to be rehabilitated, there’s one area where there was no manhole, just two pipes coming together that we need to put a manhole in, and then there’s additional lining work that needs to be done on the gravity sewer mains there to reduce the inflow and infiltration and also give you a system that’ll last you another 50 to 75 years,” he said.

He noted that the contractor gave Kimley-Horn a proposal to do those repairs. The total cost for all of it, including traffic control, excavation, road repairs, sewer replacement, sewer repairs and rehab, is roughly $700,000. 

“And again you might remember I said we have about $380,000 left that we have to spend, so the good news is we’ve got enough work to obligate the rest of the funds to spend it,” he said. “The bad news is it’s not enough to do everything.”

This created the need for the approximately $350,000 from the county’s unassigned fund balance.

“Now we had Tri-State break their proposal up into two different phases so that we could at least obligate what we needed to obligate by the end of this month, and then we have the second phase sitting there,” he said.

He noted that the first phase will involve going in and doing the excavation and the point repairs because the sewers cannot be lined and rehabbed until the point repairs are done.

“And so that first phase is roughly around $315,000,” he said.

“The second phase that we had them give us was the rehabilitation of the lines, the lining of the lines, the rehabilitation of the manholes and the repairs to the laterals that come into the main lines, and that was around $380,000,” he continued. “So roughly if you add both of those together, it comes close to $700,000, which is the total cost. 

“We had them break it up so that we could at least again proceed with Phase One and spend the reset of the money that we needed to obligate for this year, and then we could look at Phase Two when funding became available,” he said.

Weist said one of the things Kimley-Horn wanted the board to consider at the Dec. 17 meeting was going ahead and doing both phases then.

“And there’s a reason why,” he said. “One is mainly efficiency, one mobilization, one road shutdown and traffic control plan and so forth and so on and one less time to have to reroute traffic and disrupt people who live and work and play in the area.

“The other reason is just the manner that we’ve seen inflation increase just over the last year,” he continued. “I think you all have witnessed that yourself, and the price is not going to get any lower by waiting and doing this at another time.”

After the conclusion of Weis’s presentation and a brief question-and-answer session, Southwest District Supervisor Carl J. Faison said, “For all the reasons listed, it makes all kinds of sense for us to approve this tonight. So I recommend that we proceed with the completion of the project.”

Southwest District Supervisor Lynda T. Updike seconded his motion, and the unanimous vote promptly followed.