After Kosciusko County’s commissioners recently signaled opposition to plans for a conservancy district to construct a sewer system around Tippecanoe Lake, they’re now considering whether to support a water quality study that could be used as evidence against the plan.

Friends of Tippy, a group organized in opposition to the conservancy district, asked the commissioners Tuesday to support a water quality study that could be used as evidence to show the lake is not in urgent need for a sewer system.

The commissioners took the request under advisement for the purpose of studying the matter more closely.

County attorney Chad Miner is expected to report back to the commissioners within weeks with insights on how such a study should take place and whether the county could fund such a study.



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Friends of Tippy oppose the use of a conservancy district because the board that controls the district would be able to establish a levy and would have the potential to expand plans in the future with the support of just 10 percent of the property owners – known as freeholders – within the district.

Bob Ragland, John Warren and Tom Van Meter spoke at a recent commissioners meeting to voice opposition to the conservancy district.

They oppose the idea of a small group of people being able to assess a new tax on property owners within the district.

They also argue that names collected on a petition – the first of several steps needed toward organizing a conservancy district – were done so without fully explaining what the petition represented.

Friends of Tippy have established a website that can be found by searching “Friends of Tippy.”

On the website, the group expresses a willingness to support a regional sewer district, which does not have authority to establish a tax and instead funds the project through fees and other sources of revenue.

The group’s website points out that residents on Barbee rejected the idea of a conservancy district before establishing a regional sewer district, which became operational this year. “It makes sense to bring all of the Kosciusko County sewer systems together as one sewer district,” the website reads.

All three commissioners – Brad Jackson, Bob Conley and Cary Groninger – have expressed concern with the idea of a conservancy district being able to establish a levy.

Michelle Moore, a representative of the conservancy district, said she thinks there is a misunderstanding over the difference between a conservancy district and a regional sewer district.

“The reason why the conservancy district was selected was so that the property owners would be able to appoint the initial board and have elected people that would be board members to oversee the process on the behalf of the property owners, and I think that’s the key point people are missing,” Moore said.

She encouraged people to turn to the group’s website, www.sustainourlakes.com, to see a breakdown of the proposed finances for property owners for the estimated $32 million to $34 million project.

The levy, she said, would depend greatly on big of a grant the district could secure in the future.

“The majority of the homes have less than $300,000 in property assessed value, so therefore, they would pay less than somebody with a home with a higher value that could obviously afford it,” Moore said recently. “It’s trying to make it affordable based on people’s cost of living.”

Opponents of the conservancy district contend Tippecanoe is one of the cleanest lakes in the area.

Moore points out that many of the homes on the lake have aging septic systems and that septic systems are not a long-term solution.

“There is a reason why a majority of lakes already have a sewer system,” she said.