After unanimously passing a resolution to accept a $13 million grant to cover the project cost, work will soon begin on improving Rockingham’s wastewater plant.
This comes almost two months after Monty Crump, the manager of Rockingham City, announced plans to update the 1938-built building.
“The general assembly finally finished their budget, which included all the money they got in grants and appropriations.” Cramp said, “They finally did all of their paperwork to accept and give out those grant funds.”
One of the two conditions is this. What’s left is mostly set up, including technical contracts and a long list of things we need to do to be ready to accept this. We already had a project board set up before we could pass a resolution for a grant program that included spending.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s request for money was officially accepted by the motion that was passed last week. In July, Crump told the council that the project would change how Rockingham does business.
Along with replacing the insides of Rockingham’s wastewater treatment plant, the project will also add generators that can power the plant for more than 24 hours. This way, if the power goes out, the treated water that flows into the Pee Dee River won’t back up.
“The first water plant was designed by Davis & Floyd in 1937 or 1938, and we’re using them.” They know our system and buildings very well because they have done a lot of work for us. That’s what they do best. We have a lot of faith in going forward.
“The schedule we looked at says it will be done by February 2027,” Crump said last summer. “The fact that you have the same engineers who built the wastewater plant in 1989.” With the same boss and wastewater treatment client ready to talk about what went wrong the last time and how to fix it this time, it’s a rare feeling.
The Council also approved a resolution that named Crump the project’s executor. This means that he can receive papers and keep an eye on all grants and funds that are connected to the project.
“We’ll be able to turn this in on Wednesday.” Engineers we’re working with are already thinking about how to speed up the permit process for this job… “We hope to be done with construction by late 2026 or early 2027,” Crump said.