After three years of effort and planning, DeKalb mayor Lowell Walker announced this week that the Texas Water Development Board has approved over $7 million in funding for the planning, design and construction of a new water improvement project.

The project will allow the City of DeKalb to replace more than half of its aging water infrastructure and install approximately 100 new fire hydrants throughout the city limits.

Walker stated, “I want to thank the Texas Water Development Board, Governor Abbott and the State of Texas for their unyielding support of DeKalb. Their recognition of small town utility needs allows us to increase service while saving precious water resources. One hundred new fire hydrants will help us reduce insurance rates while providing better services for residents. This investment will ensure the DeKalb public works is better prepared to address community needs in the future.”

The mayor met with Governor Abbott and his staff several times about the grant, both locally and in Austin. In one of those visits Walker presented the governor with a letter detailing the need to bolster the city’s aged and deteriorating water infrastructure.

That letter read… I am writing this letter to request your assistance. Since becoming Mayor of De Kalb in September 2019, I have focused on addressing significant problems in our aging water and sewer systems. Maintaining systems in very poor condition has represented the most expensive parts of De Kalb’s budget. The sewer system has large amounts of water infiltration which results in higher operating costs and compliance issues with the TCEQ. The water system leaks extensively. Over 25% of our purchased water leaks into the ground.

To reduce operating costs and avoid burdening utility rate increases, we immediately began planning to replace the water and sewer lines. De Kalb pursued and was successful in obtaining a US EDA grant during 2020 in the amount of $2M to be primarily used city wide for sewer line replacement. We began working for further funding in 2020 for a $7,100,000 TWDB project, and hope for approval project this year. This project will replace almost all fire hydrants, and approximately 50% of our water lines.

Significant progress has been made to improve De Kalb’s infrastructure. With the availability of the EDA and TWDB funds, De Kalb was well on the way to (1) address the aging infrastructure ; (2) protect our citizens from rate increases; and (3) stabilize operational. We have taken every opportunity available to repair our City’s aging infrastructure.

The US Highway 82 widening project has presented the City with additional challenges. These projects were in our ability to plan, fund, and execute until the US 82 widening project required we redirect our funds to help the state.

In 2021 De Kalb was mandated by TxDOT to relocate all water and sewer utilities along US 82 from the eastern city limit to the western city limit. With engineering costs, the relocation estimate totaled $3.4M. To meet this mandate, $1.5M of the 2020 US EDA grant proceeds were to be reallocated to relocation costs. A $1.2M loan from the State Infrastructure Bank (SIB) was obtained to provide additional funds to support the 2021 estimated cost of the relocations.

However, TxDOT final road plans have changed from the requested relocation cost estimates in 2021. Construction costs have significantly increased leading to cost overruns. Inflation and COVID-19 supply chain issues have significantly increased the City of De Kalb’s costs for the relocations. It is notable that in 2021, the original TxDOT project was estimated to be $47,000,000 and the current estimate is $113,000,000.

Most importantly, the funding to address the Tx-DOT mandated relocations impacts our TWDB application as our loan payments for the SIB compete with the TWDB requirements for repayment.

To continue our utility projects, we need the following assistance:

•A $2,000,000 SIB grant that retires our current SIB loan and addresses all US 82 utility relocation costs, and

•Approval of our TWDB application with 70% loan forgiveness.

De Kalb is proceeding with the mandated US 82 utility relocation construction and will meet state and TxDOT needs. We desperately need your help with the SIB and TWDB.