By Emma Loura/Manhattan Mercury
Riley County residents who need sewage system repairs but can’t pay for them are about to get some help.
Planning director Amanda Webb on Monday told county commissioners the Kansas Department of Health and Environment had granted the county a $50,000 grant to help fix faulty sewage systems for people with low to moderate incomes. County officials can use the grant funds to fix a full system or individual parts.
“We have a handful of failures we’ve had for a while that those folks have told us they cannot afford to fix,” Webb said. “We will send this information straight out to them. Now, it’s going to be up to them to submit, and we don’t know if they 100% meet these guidelines. But we will send it out to them, and hopefully, this will help them get their systems fixed.”
Webb said repairs will be prioritized according to applicant income, need and severity of the failure. Surfacing sewage ranks as the most serious concern, followed by a failed lateral field, a failed septic tank and failed lateral components like pipes, inspection ports and distribution boxes. The grant also can cover the materials and labor of connecting to a public water system but not the connection fees themselves.
Webb said the county can pay for up to 85% of the expenses for households with an income between 134% and 200% of the 2023 federal poverty level, and it can cover 100% of the costs for households with an income 133% and below the 2023 federal poverty level.
“It’s up to the jurisdiction how we want to get information from folks and also how much we want to give,” Webb said. “Other jurisdictions have a cap of, for example, $5,000 per person. Others have done the full amount.”
The county will accept applications until Oct. 4.
Applicants must submit proof of income and a minimum of two bids from contractors for the proposed work. If approved to use grant funding for the work, the contractors will submit their invoices directly to the county.
Webb said the challenge will be finding a balance between prioritizing repairs according to severity and helping as many people as possible.
“We don’t want to have a limit, and then we don’t get the chance to get all the money out,” Webb said. “But we also don’t want to say we’ll give the full amount, and then we only help only two or three people.”
Webb said currently she is putting together information sheets and application forms for qualifying individuals and households.
