Tuscaloosa County To Address Water Issues With Federal Aid Funds

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Discussions are moving forward on how Tuscaloosa County officials will address a wide range of projects through federal aid made available by the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

The Tuscaloosa County Commission will conduct a work session following its regular meeting on July 21 to discuss the infrastructure projects covered under the American Rescue Plan, along with other funding requests for the FY22 budget.

In May, Congresswoman Terri Sewell announced that Tuscaloosa County would receive $40 million under the American Rescue Plan, coming out to roughly a third of the $123 million that will be also dived out among the city and county school systems, the City of Tuscaloosa and the City of Northport.

During Wednesday's meeting, several projects were discussed ahead of the work session, with District 2 Commissioner Jerry Tingle presenting a long, detailed list of projects to be covered under the American Rescue Plan, complete with cost estimates and plans.

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The list of projects for Tingle's district comes out to a total cost of $3.36 million, which is in the ballpark of the $3 million limit in water and sewer infrastructure projects for each of the four commission districts.

Probate Judge and County Commission Chair Rob Robertson said the commission's priority with the funds made available through the American Rescue Plan would focus on drinking water service for those in the county as opposed to sewer service.

"Many of our residents get by on septic tanks, but they need fresh water," Robertson said. "As far as housing, you have to have clean drinking water, so that’s priority one to the commission. That’s why we’re talking so much about water projects. We think it's an opportunity to really address some longstanding capacity issues across the county. There are a lot of things to take into consideration … but it’s a great opportunity to invest in the longterm."

While the overall approach has already seen the four commissioners come together to focus on the bigger picture with respect to the county's drinking water infrastructure, the process of allocating the funds and getting projects approved has spurred debate and raised tempers.

On Wednesday, for example, Tingle's long list of proposed projects received vocal support across the Commission when they were presented in the form of a single motion. Each commissioner agreed that Tingle had been thorough in constructing his project proposals and expressed support for giving a green light on work to commence.

Conversely, District 4 Commissioner Reginald Murray was met with pushback on the projects he brought up for a vote Wednesday, due to Commissioners not being familiar with the specifics of the work that would be done. One of these projects — sewer improvements for Culver Road — has been before the Commission before, but was once again met with apprehension ahead of the work session.

"I'm not against the project at all, there is just a process to do this," commented District 3 Commissioner Mark Nelson, who pointed out that he also had a long list of projects for his district that he had yet to make a final determination on. "I didn’t know if we were going to do this at one time … we’ve just got to look at our total number though."

The purpose of the July 21 work session will be to discuss and go over a master list of projects — in the form of spreadsheet broken down by district. The county will then move forward on bids and contracts after a final decision is made on the projects in each district.

"I think it's in the best interest of the county to at least take a look globally at which projects are the highest priority," Robertson said.

The next County Commission meeting is set for 9 a.m. on Wednesday, July 21 in the bottom floor Commission Chamber at the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse.

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