A dramtic turn: money may be back for High Springs sewer system
By Ronald Dupont Jr.
Herald Editor

HIGH SPRINGS -- Shock set in among the High Springs City Commission when it learned a year ago that millions of dollars in grants and loans for expanding the sewer system were no longer available.

That city had already started the first phase of the system and without the expansion, the city had a system that couldn't pay for itself.

Very quickly, the decades-long push by High Springs to build a citywide sewer system was over. No expansion of the sewer system meant more septic tanks polluting the environment and businesses being restricted in their growth until they could get more land for sewage drain fields.

Last week, that all changed.

The federal agency that originally denied High Springs the money adjusted its calculations and informed the city that High Springs is once more on track for $10.4 million to expand the sewer system.

"This is a long, long way away from a year ago, when we had no funding," Mayor Kirk Eppenstein said Thursday as city commissioners welcomed the news.

The city has not been guaranteed the money but a July 25 letter from the USDA's Rural Development division stated that the city qualifies for the money and that the money likely will be available this year.

If the city is granted the money, homeowners in the historic southeast, southwest and northwest areas of the city -- Phases 2 & 3 of the sewer project -- will not have to pay a $3,500 impact fee to hook into the sewer system.

High Springs was on track to get the money last year but new U.S. Census data showed that the average resident was earning too much money for the city to qualify for the loan.

Apparently, though, High Springs wasn't alone. The new Census data disqualified cities across the nation. The USDA's Rural Development division found that the income level it had set was old.

"It had not been adjusted for a number of years," Eppenstein said.

In short, he added, "we were a victim of our own success."

But Rural Development adjusted the income threshold and last week, the city was informed that it is eligible for a $6.4 million loan and a $4 million grant.