Cloverdale council presses for clarity on water grants, tanks and delayed projects

Cloverdale councilors and staff spent the workshop probing the status and financing of several long-running water and wastewater projects, with a focus on grant funding, project delays and big storage-tank proposals.

Public-works staff provided a line-by-line update on grants and projects tied to a turnkey program and AMI meter upgrades, saying the DWR-linked portion of work associated with that effort and related well projects totals in the low millions and that ARPA contributed funds to the AMI meter project. Staff reported invoiced and in-process grant-linked amounts of roughly $2,886,437.70 across those efforts. Mayor (S3) and other council members pressed for documentation showing the projected water- and energy-savings actually materialized and said an audit would help verify whether anticipated savings offset debt financing.

Why it matters: Cloverdale’s water projects involve multi-year contracts, outside grants and loans that affect the city’s capital budget and utility revenues. Councilors warned that continuing to layer borrowing and unfinished projects could leave residents paying for work that has not produced promised benefits.

Staff said the solar installation tied to the turnkey project has not yet been energized and acknowledged delays imposed by third parties (PG&E scheduling was cited). Council members flagged the need to see the projected schedule for bringing solar online and asked staff to document realized savings once systems are operational.

On storage tanks, the council heard staff and consultants explain that one proposed site — the Alexander Valley Resort property — had engineering and topographic challenges. A consultant (S7) and other members recommended pausing large tank construction at that site until the city’s master plan update can confirm system-wide needs. S7 told the group a million-gallon storage option was in prior planning documents but that the site’s costs and uncertain development timing argued for a holistic review before committing to expensive, site-specific storage.

Council direction and next steps: Members directed staff to assemble clearer financial accounting for grants, impact-fee allocations and debt-service effects; to return documented evidence of realized savings from AMI and solar once available; and to include the tank-sizing question in the master-plan-informed analysis before deciding on large new storage at the Alexander Valley site.

Representative quote: “This has been on the books since I became the mayor in ’22,” Mayor (S3) said, stressing urgency for progress and clearer reporting on what has been completed.

Ending: Staff said they will compile a project-status table, including grant amounts, billing to date, next steps and recommended actions, and return it to council at a future meeting and at the budget workshop.