Vinton Wastewater Project Cancelled For Now; 3 City Council Members Blamed For Lack Of Support

An important infrastructure project in Vinton, Texas is cancelled after a contentious city council meeting Tuesday evening.

The meeting lasted more than four hours and had to be moved from Vinton city hall to the West Valley Fire Department to accommodate the overflow of people in attendance.

At stake during the meeting was the future of a wastewater sewage project for the village. Vinton currently uses septic tanks and cesspools, according to its mayor.

Vinton Mayor Madeleine Praino said the village’s lack of a modern sewer system is a health risk that has stunted Vinton’s growth by discouraging potential developers from investing in the area.

Praino explained the project has an estimated price tag of $22 million. She said she and her staff have already secured $14 million in funding from federal and state grants.

Thousands of dollars in grant money have already been poured into the project’s planning and design. Praino hoped city council members would approve a motion Tuesday evening that would allow Vinton to pledge about $625,000 in certificates of obligation to finalize the design.

Praino said without that resolution’s approval, some of the already-secured funding for the project would expire. “If we don’t have a resolution on the desk of the Texas Water Development Board tomorrow, the deal is off,” said Preino when ABC-7 interviewed her before the meeting.

Around Vinton, several signs supporting the sewage project can be seen posted outside homes and businesses.

Preino said most people in the village supported the project, despite some misinformation about what the project might mean for their pocketbooks.

Once the project is built, Preino said each residence or business would be responsible for the construction of a connection to the system. That connection can range from $2,000-$4,000. Preino said some folks had expressed concern over how they would be expected to incur that cost, but added city leaders would seek out grants to help cover a big bulk of those expenses.

When the meeting began, it was clear the sewage issue would not be easily addressed.

Several outbursts and bickering among council members marked the meeting throughout its duration. In the end, the motion that would allow the project to continue as planned failed in a 3-2 vote.

Some audience members blamed three council members for blocking the project. Martha Garcia, Juvencia Rios-Ontiveros, and Maria Medina voted against it.

In a telephone conversation with ABC-7 before the meeting, Garcia said she was in favor of the idea for a better wastewater system, but did not think the people wanted it because they could not pay for it.

ABC-7 also spoke with Rios-Ontiveros. She accused the mayor’s administration of wasteful spending and said Vinton should take care of water access issues before trying to solve the wastewater situation.

While some in the meeting expressed concerns about how council planned to lessen the financial burden on Vinton taxpayers during the project’s construction, most in the audience spoke out in favor of the plan and chastised the three women for not supporting the project.

“You’re the ones that are destroying this,” said one man as the room roared with applause.

Rios-Ontiveros said she knows many people in Vinton who did not support the project either.

“I represent all of Vinton,” said Rios-Ontiveros. “The people (in support of the project) who came to the meeting are only a fraction of our population.”

The mayor sent ABC-7 an e-mail Wednesday in which she wrote: “We need to close the chapter on the wastewater and water projects at this time. I would like to thank the funding agencies for their support and the flexibility they showed toward Vinton. We now, move forward with other projects and programs to improve the quality of life of our Village. We will wait and see what will happen on November 2013.”