Verona to get nearly $5 million for new wastewater treatment plant
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - Missouri is handing out $410 million in grants. The money will help communities across the state make much-needed improvements.
That means big bucks for the small town of Verona.
Anthony Mikolajski said, “How is a little town like this going to take care of this?”
He is one of about 600 people living in the town of Verona. For this community paying the tab for city-wide repairs is almost impossible.
“This is a little town. We don’t have all the taxpayers like Monett and Aurora,” he said.
For years the city has needed to make improvements to its wastewater treatment plant. But raising the funding needed to make the millions of dollars of repairs is no easy task.
“I don’t think for the small town of Verona that it would have been beneficial for the taxpayers to actually pay more money to have this done,” said Mayor Joseph Heck.
Officials say this plant is at least 40 years old. The infrastructure simply can’t handle the increase in population. Additionally when it rains flooding becomes an issue. Heck says the wastewater treatment plant has a tendency to stop functioning when it takes on too much water. Rather than processing the raw sewage flowing in the plant pushes it out. Governor Mike Parson has awarded Verona nearly $5 million dollars to make the necessary improvements. This will not only help process the waste produced by people living in town but the waste created by the large manufacturing plants in the area.
“Not only are we getting a new sewer plant but also now we can expand. We can take more flow from the companies. That means more revenue for the citizens and town to fix roads and do some improvements,” said Heck.
Mikolajski said, “That would be really cool for them to be able to have some extra bucks to throw into extra projects. Any boost that we could get of anything towards our town is a good old shot in the arm.”
CLICK HERE for the full list of cities and towns that won grant funding.
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