EDA grant gone, FOBH commit to replace it for cityowned sewer plan

The city of Wimberley officially terminated the $1 million grant from the US Economic Development Agency but did receive $$177,548.31 to go towards expenses related to the construction of the wastewater treatment plant.

The Friends of Blue Hole announced this week that they have the funding to make up for the terminated grant should the city decide to continue with the original plan of constructing a wastewater treatment plant. Friends of Blue Hole is the local nonprofit group that provided initial funding to purchase and develop Blue Hole Park, and supports and advocates for sustainable use and development of the park.

According to a letter from the EDA, the city requested that the $1 million grant be terminated. The grant could only be used for the construction of the treatment plant, which the current sewer plan to go with Aqua Texas treatment does not require.

The city submitted nearly $550,000 of costs for the construction and termination of the wastewater treatment plant, and the EDA agreed to pay 32.5 percent of those costs, which is the percentage of costs the $1 million grant would have paid for the entire construction of the plant.

Friends of Blue Hole said that they received a $1 million grant to fund additional planting at Blue Hole Regional Park, but that the planting would need reuse water.

“Our interest is Blue Hole Park,” Andrew Weber, chairman of Friends of Blue Hole said in a press release. “We received a pledge in February of $1,000,000 to complete planting for the Blue Hole Park master plan. At that time, lack of direction from the City and the Texas Water Development Board made it imprudent to proceed with planting.” Weber further explained “Two recent events, unfortunately, verify our caution and make planting impossible in the immediate future--because planting requires sustainable water. We received permission to instead use a large portion of the planting grant ($823,000) to try to obtain the sustainable, reuse water necessary for the planting and preservation of Blue Hole Park. That is, if the city stays with the City Plan, the Park has water.”