Despite the recent bankruptcy filing, the city of Stockton is looking into possibly selling bonds to pay for upgrades to the city’s outdated sewer system. While the markets may be slow to embrace new debt from the city, infrastructure is crumbling and rusted after nearly 70 years of use.
Some of the key equipment still being used by the city was originally installed in 1946, the year that the city’s Navy Drive plant was built. And when the city’s new director of municipal services first toured the facility, it took only minutes until he found a cause to champion. The plant needs help.
However, further complicating the bond sales is the recent downgrade of the city’s other water bonds, which were recently dropped into “junk” territory. The price tag to modernize the plan would be about $156 million.
From the Stockton Record Net:
The city’s aging sewer plant, a stinky corner of town drawing comparisons to Dante’s Inferno, may be the problem that forces Stockton officials, bankruptcy baggage and all, back to Wall Street begging for a loan.
Parts of the treatment facility were built 70 years ago. The machinery is still hard at work – barely. Rust has frozen in place steel gates designed to protect Stockton residents from flooding.
Read the full article here.