The City of Washington is continuing work to improve its water and wastewater systems and that work has been aided by federal funds.

The city was awarded a Community Development Block Grant. At the recent Washington City Council meeting City Administrator Brent Hinson shared how much money was awarded for the southeast sewer basin, “We are privileged enough for the second time in just over a year to be able to get a Community Development Block Grant. So it’s a $600,000 federal grant for sewer improvements. Back in April we got a $600,000 grant for our water plant improvements. So, we’re pretty successful in that regard, these days that counts for being big federal grant money, that’s about as big as you can get.” The council approved a grant contract with Iowa Economic Development Authority as well as a contract with Simmering-Cory, Inc. to administer the grant process on the city’s behalf.

The city is in the final planning stages of a $1.6 million sanitary sewer rehabilitation project on the east side of town and these funds will go toward that work, with the rest of the funding coming from bond funds and sewer fund reserves. Hinson adds that the improvements are system maintenance strategies that will also reduce the amount of inflow and infiltration of stormwater into the sanitary sewer system.