40 days and 40 nights: ‘Backstop’ to help town awaiting payment
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The $40 million Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant to modernize the Lake Placids wastewater treatment system is now paying out.
Much of the grant money comes in the form of reimbursement to the town as it spends money on a new wastewater treatment plant and in the future, retires aging septic tanks and buries new wastewater lines in residential areas.
The project is much more complicated than that, but the DEP now allows an advanced payment option for which the town is able to submit a request for a refund, and FDEP will process it immediately and then review the supporting documentation after the fact, according to interim Town Administrator Joe Barber.
It may take between five to 15 days to receive the DEP reimbursement check, but it can take up to 40 days. However, some of the towns construction contracts require it to pay various contractors sooner than that.
In the unlikely event that the state takes up to 40 days to reimburse the town for work it has completed, the town may have to revise construction contracts to have longer payment terms, Barber said.
The other option, which the council approved, was to secure a separate line of credit to pay contractors working on the wastewater project.
We need to have a line of credit in case of emergencies, Barber told the council. The DEP advanced payment can take up to 40 days. Its an emergency backstop.
The line of credit comes from a pre-approved line of credit from Heartland National Bank; Mayor John Holbrook, Barber, and Finance Director Rachel Osborne are authorized to request advances.
The council also approved the transfer of money from the Sewer Plant Expansion account be transferred into the Septic to Sewer Operating account. The money would then be transferred back to the Water Sewer Capital Improvement account after the project is finished.
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