County Lists Holden As WRM Recipient

It was encouraging news this past week when the County listed the City of Holden as pre-approved for a water resource match (WRM) recipient of some $150,000.

However, final approval for the WRM will be based on a “scoring” system by the Department of Natural Resources. That is expected to conclude by October 12.

When reached for an description of what the process entails and what the likelihood of approval would be, Holden Water Superintendent Tony Lerda pointed at both the pluses and minuses.

“This application is quite condensed and weighs heavily on household income and that relationship to user fee, “ he said
“In Holden we have worked very hard to keep user fees down, and therefore our scoring in these areas is a bit weak, due to the fact we are debt free in our drinking water utility.”

But, he continued, there are strengths as well.

“We have certainly scored well in the needs area,” he said.

“The county’s match definitely helped us to exceed the most favorable 20 percent match in the scoring. It also reflects our community’s connection with the county, and the commissioners’ genuine concern and desire to help the communities around Johnson County.

“I am not positive of all our scores at this time. We are still working on some of the scoring bench…

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