To help finance

improvements to Fayetteville's stormwater drainage system and a three-man

crew to maintain the system city officials plan to issue $1.6 million

in revenue bonds later this year so the money will be available immediately.

To repay those

bonds, the city will be charging a stormwater fee on the water and sewer

bills of residential, business and commercial customers.

Homes will

be assessed a fixed fee of $2.95 a month under the proposal presented

to the Fayetteville City Council Thursday night. Businesses and commercial

users would be assessed on a scale based on the amount of impervious surface

on its property.

For example,

a business like Wendy's would pay less than $15, Fayetteville First Methodist

Church would pay $94 and Fayette Community Hospital would pay $315, officials

said.

The upside

of using the revenue bond financing is that the funds will be available

almost immediately in case one or several stormwater projects need to

be fast tracked, officials said.

The city will

also use the bond issue to start up a storm drainage maintenance program

with a three-person crew, said City Engineer Don Easterbrook. There is

also some money in the budget to fund the evaluation of individual homes

with stormwater drainage problems, Easterbrook added.

Mayor Ken Steele

said the city has been working on this plan for several years and officials

want to "address the need and problem as economically as possible."

For a number

of residents whose homes were flooded in June, however, that was little

solace. Addressing the City Council, many said the repairs needed to be

done immediately and not several months down the road because they can't

afford to clean up from another flood.

Some speakers

said they had spent in the thousands of dollars to repair their homes

after the June flood that was sparked by heavy rains.

The first area

to be addressed in the stormwater improvement program will be Circle Drive,

and engineering work on that project has already begun with construction

set for February, officials said. The city will also make improvements

to the East Fayetteville basin, the Medford Manor area and to areas downstream

of Pye Lake in the Gingercake Creek basin.

The revenue

bonds would be financed over 20 years, meaning the stormwater fee would

last at least that long, said Councilman Larry Dell.