BY STEFANIE BOWMANN, Eastern Shore Post —
Exmore’s new sewer system will be 100% up and running nearly four years after the town council voted unanimously to partner with the public Hampton Roads Sanitation District on the project.
When town officials began seriously weighing options in 2019, Exmore was burdened by an aged sewer treatment plant and a Virginia Department of Health consent order that limited the town to serving about 350 customers. Now there’s opportunity for growth in Exmore, where the population is below 1,500.
The nearly $18.5 million sewer project brought a host of challenges, including costs that approximately doubled due to materials and labor shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising inflation that followed.
The town was also met with resistance by Exmore residents who balked at the connection mandate that applied even to homes with working septic systems.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture instituted the requirement as a condition for the town to receive grant and loan funding.
But the option Exmore chose also had advantages. Through partnership with HRSD, the town constructed a collection system but avoided the need for a new treatment plant.
Exmore’s wastewater is now transported through the HRSD main on U.S. Route 13 to the Onancock treatment plant, which has excess capacity.
Exmore officials also negotiated a deal with HRSD in which the town controls billing, allowing Exmore to make special payment arrangements for customers if needed.
At the Exmore Town Council meeting on Monday, Feb. 3, Town Manager Taylor Dukes announced that the project will be done in about three weeks.
Remaining work to be completed includes the installation of pump stations at the Food Lion shopping center and Holiday Inn.
Dukes is washing his hands of around four homeowners who still refuse to allow workers to connect their properties to the sewer system.
The town has met the required number of connections and continues “spending attorney fees, and we’re not getting anything,” he said.
Dukes cautioned that the uncooperative property owners will bear the full cost of connecting to the public sewer system when their private septic systems fail.
The town council authorized a payment of not quite $200,000 to the sewer project’s contractor, Kevcor, of Norfolk. The balance to finish the contract is less than $100,000.
Exmore had just over $6 million in the bank at the end of January, Dukes reported.
Northampton County Administrator Charlie Kolakowski had notified him of efforts to get funding put in the state budget to repair or replace old water lines in Exmore in anticipation of the future construction of workforce or retirement housing, Dukes said.
The county is also considering extending the water lines to the area of Occohannock Elementary School and down Broadwater Road, he said.
