Kinston City Council elects to hold off on biosolids dryer

Aug. 23--A proposition was taken off the table in Monday's Kinston City Council meeting -- at least, for now.

The board decided not to make a decision on a resolution to accept a clean water state revolving fund loan of $1.6 million for the construction of a biosolids dryer at the Kinston Regional Water Reclamation Facility.

Kinston City Councilwoman Kelly Jarman said she had concerns and wanted to weigh out all options before making a decision.

"I was one of the board members who questioned the debt service on the dryer revenue coming in," she said. "I would rather see the price of taking the sludge somewhere else and seeing which option is cheaper before committing to a 20-year project where we would start operating in the red."

Kinston City Manager Tony Sears said officials are still in the process of looking for grants to assist in endeavors such as these for residents.

"The biosolids dryer is something we wouldn't be able to do without a grant," Sears said. "It's all about risk management and trying to see how we can get rid of waste 365 days of the year. This could give us a way to manage waste and the opportunity to break even with the grant.

"I think the biggest thing to take away from this meeting is the city is looking at grants and funding for infrastructure issues. We're trying to reinvest and have better reliability as far as water and sewer. Unfortunately, there aren't any electric grants, but we're still pursuing."

The next city council meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 2 due to the Labor Day holiday.

Junious Smith III can be reached at 252-559-1077 and Junious.Smith@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JuniousSmithIII.

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