Monday marked the beginning of construction work on the city's new water treatment plant and, within the next 600 days, a new structure should be installed for the citizens of McMinnville.

The original structure, which still stands, was built in 1961 and has been in need of overhaul for years. The prospective date of completion is set at no later than December 6, 2026, if there are no hiccups or unforeseen circumstances which might create allowance for extensions.

"When I started working here in 2002, one of my visions was to build a new water plant," Water Department Director Ricky Morton said in his speech before the groundbreaking. "It's been kicked to the curb and kicked to the curb, and we've done other projects such as the tank project down at 127, painted the tank up town and the one on Bybee Branch."

The new construction was previously approved by the city’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the winning bid by W&O Construction came in at $15,626,000. An agreement for a “Value Engineering” redesign from James C. Hailey & Company added $175K to the project. This was funded by $6 million in loan funding, $7,515,822.31 in grant funding and $3,005,177.69 from the water department’s reserves. Some of the funding is reimbursable through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s ARP program.

In addition to the above, water rates were increased by 5% in April of last year to aid the city in becoming eligible for the state-funded loan.

"After Anthony Pelham left, Nathaniel and I began talking about a new water treatment plant. Nathaniel said he thought we could do it - we started all of this back in 2021," Morton said. "Finally, after some money through ARP and loans through SRF with some forgiveness, we are finally making it happen. I want to thank everyone who has been involved in this process."

Once the new water treatment facility is complete, the old one will be torn down and some pieces will be recycled for use elsewhere or sold.