Council approves assistance

When the Aledo City Council had its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, Dec. 7, a big announcement several months in the making was on the docket. City Manager Noah Simon confirmed the city is receiving $3.5 million in financial assistance from the Texas Water Development Board that will be used to fund construction of the wastewater collection project. 

Aledo’s population growth over the past few decades has meant necessary upgrades to the infrastructure across the city. Two pieces of infrastructure sorely needing an upgrade are the Old Tunnel Lift Station and the Clear Fork Interceptor. 

With the cost of construction continuing to rise since the pandemic of 2020, coupled with the growing demand on the wastewater system, the city could not hold off on these projects any longer.

In January of 2023, Aledo began the multi-million-dollar project to increase the capacity of the wastewater collection system at the Old Tunnel Lift Station and complete the Clear Fork Interceptor Sewer project. 

That project was completed in August of 2023. What hung in the balance was whether or not the city would qualify for funding from the TWDB.

With the TWDB scheduled to meet last week, Simon picked up the phone to find out if the application from Aledo would be on the schedule for the meeting. When the answer he got wasn’t the one he wanted, or the one the city of Aledo needed, he spent the next several hours on the phone pleading his case to get the application added to the board’s to-do list. 

His determination proved worthwhile, as the board added Aledo’s application to the agenda for the meeting. Shortly after the city was notified the funding was approved.

The $3.5 million will come from the TWDB’s Clean Water Revolving Fund. Getting approval for the financial assistance will save the City of Aledo approximately $567,000 in interest payments over the life of the loan initially used to fund the project, according to a press release by the TWDB.