EPA Waives Water Funding - Petal
Petal Mayor Says EPA Agrees to Waive Water Funding Match
Mayor Ducker told the Petal Board of Aldermen that federal officials have agreed to waive the city's required 20 percent local match on a $1.75 million water funding package.
During the mayor's report at the Nov. 4 meeting, Mayor Ducker — his identification inferred from context in meeting audio — described conversations with the Environmental Protection Agency over financing tied to a $1.75 million project. "He has talked to the EPA. We're going to go — that's where our 1.75 is coming from for the thing, and it was supposed to be 80/20," he said. "Well, he has gotten us pre-approval, I guess, or whatever, for forgiveness on the match so we wouldn't have to have the 20% match."
The mayor credited a project contact he referred to as "Luke" with securing the pre-approval, though further details on that contact were not given at the meeting. It was not specified in the discussion whether the funding applies to water or sewer infrastructure.
A waived 20 percent local match on $1.75 million in federal funding would represent direct relief to Petal's municipal budget, reducing the city's own cash exposure on a federally backed infrastructure project. Such match-waiver arrangements are the kind of detail typically tracked by bond counsel and development advisers monitoring Mississippi municipal infrastructure financing, since they shift cost burden away from local taxpayers and onto federal programs.