The first payment of federal “stimulus” money slated to come to Leelanau County has been positively identified – but may be dead on arrival.

Officials who’ve been told they’re eligible for the money aren’t so sure they want it or the sewage treatment plant in Cedar that the money was allocated to help pay for.

Last year, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality rejected plans to construct a sewage treatment plant in the unincorporated village of Cedar in Solon Township, primarily because of design issues and the fact that too many residents indicated they didn’t want or need to be hooked up to a sewer system – or pay for it.

This month, however, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced that Solon Township will be the recipient of a low-interest loan of more than $1.3 million, including a grant of around $300,000, to help pay for construction of a wastewater treatment plant.

A March 4 news release from the governor’s office indicated that communities submitting sewer and water infrastructure projects last spring and summer in anticipation of receiving low-interest loans will be among the first eligible to receive funding under the recently-approved American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – commonly referred to as the federal economic “stimulus” plan.

Solon Township last year submitted a plan to the state for a proposed sewer project and sought a low-interest loan from the State Revolving Fund to help pay for it. 

But in April 2008, officials declared the project “dead” after receiving a report from the MDEQ indicating that state funding would not be available because the plan relied on a “customized” special assessment district of volunteer sewer users rather than everyone in the village.

In January of this year, the Solon Township Board formally scrapped plans for the system – but was left with a $30,000 bill for planning and design work done to date.

At the time, MDEQ project manager Mike Cox told township officials that a sewer project for Cedar would remain on the state’s list of projects and might become the beneficiary of federal “stimulus” funding  through the state if the U.S. Congress passed a stimulus plan.

Congress did.  And now, the State of Michigan is offering Solon Township a $1.3 million loan and $300,000 grant to build a wastewater treatment plant for which there is no plan, and for which local public support is questionable at best.

“You’ve seen a news release about a sewer project in Cedar?”  Solon Township supervisor Jim Lautner asked a newspaper reporter who called about  the subject. “Well, then you probably know a lot more about it than I do.  I haven’t seen a news release and I don’t know anything about this project. So I have no comment.”

“Well, that’s odd because I sent the township a letter about this when we knew they’d be eligible for the economic stimulus,” said Cox. “Nonetheless, it’s unlikely that Solon Township will be able to use the money because too much time will have elapsed between now and whenever they’re ready to move forward on a project – if they want to move forward at all.”

Cox noted that the township had “discharged” the contractor that drew up preliminary plans for a sewage treatment plant, and added that the Cedar sewer project was nowhere near being the kind of “shovel-ready” project intended for the federal stimulus money or the current round of State Revolving Fund loans and grants.

“The problem is that folks in Solon Township don’t even know what they need to build or even whether they want it,” Cox said. “They may be better off forgoing the economic stimulus money for now and putting together a new plan.  We do know that the $1.3 million figure cannot be a correct figure because, at this point, nobody knows what’s correct.”

Cox said he was working closely with Solon Township zoning administrator Tim Cypher to determine what might be required to move forward with a wastewater treatment plant project for Cedar – or whether a drinking water system for the village might be more appropriate given the amount of nutrients detected in local groundwater.

Cypher said he was working with the Leelanau County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority in hopes of using grant funding available through the authority for water quality testing and septic analysis.

“At this point, we’re just trying to determine the overall feasibility of a project and what might actually be needed,” Cypher said.  “The good news is that there is, and there will be, more money available to work on these projects. The bad news is that it will be a while before any kind of water or wastewater treatment project is ‘shovel-ready’ in Solon Township – assuming we can put together a plan that will be approved locally.”