City Council Shelves Sewer District Bylaws For Discrepancy
August 18, 2020 at 3:31 a.m.
By David [email protected]
County attorney Chad Miner, who also is legal counsel for the district, attended the meeting to present the bylaws to the council. However, Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer had city attorney Scott Reust weigh in first on the bylaws because “there’s some language in these bylaws that talks about the provider unit who will use their governing body, which our city attorney interprets as the Board of Works. But I know at the county level, both the county commission and the county council voted on two members each.”
Thallemer said he had Reust look at the state statutes to give an opinion on how Reust thinks the city’s appointment “ought to be made.” Thallemer said it probably won’t change who the city appoints – Utilities Superintendent Brian Davison – but the bylaws need to be correct from the start.
Reust said it appears paragraph 4.1 of the bylaws provides “an appointment by the governing body of the treatment provider.” Reust said the city’s governing body as a treatment provider is the Board of Works. The statute from a Dec. 5, 2019, letter suggests the appointment could be made by an “elected executive or the legislative officers of eligible entities having territory in the district.” The city doesn’t have territory in the district, but gets a seat at the board because it’s tentatively going to be the sewer treatment provider.
Reust said it appears there’s three different ways the appointment to the district board could be made: by the Board of Works, by the mayor or the city council.
“It looks to me that, from the letter, the statute and the bylaws, it could be any one of the three,” Reust said.
Miner said that might be something that needed to be changed and he could coordinate with Reust on that. He said the petition that was filed with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and was approved by IDEM, calls for an appointment by the Warsaw Common Council.
After a half-hour discussion on the appointment and the bylaws, Miner and Reust agreed to sit down and work out the issue and bring the bylaws back for approval. If the bylaws are changed, they will also have to be reapproved by the other boards that approved them.
The bylaws issue was discussed after Davison gave the council an update on the city’s $30 million-plus new wastewater treatment plant expansion that has been in the works for a few years.
“We had anticipated actually starting to take flow from the plant, but that’s been pushed back probably to Wednesday at this point,” Davison said before going through a slide show of photos of the old and new plants. “We are hoping to take flow Wednesday, maybe Thursday, but hopefully Wednesday.”
Asked about the old treatment plant, Davison said they are “reusing everything that we are currently using” and “we are not getting rid of anything.”
Councilwoman Diane Quance said she and Council President Jack Wilhite went to see the plant on Friday and “it was very interesting and really neat to be able to walk up and look down in there and see how it was going to start working.”
Davison said the water will be 20 feet deep. Wilhite agreed it was very interesting.
The engineering is complete, Davison said, and “this location will take the city of Warsaw to ultimately 12 million gallons. After this, we’ll be at 6 million gallons.”
Councilman Mike Klondaris said, “I think it might be worth noting that this council took a lot of heat and a lot of angst in the debate as to whether or not to build this facility. When you see what’s happening, I think we should all be really proud. We should be proud of the mayor, we should be proud of the people who run the plant and I think the council deserves some credit for seeing it through. And I just want to say thanks to everybody. I think it was worth it. We’re growing and we’re moving forward.”
Thallemer said he felt the same way and the $30 million project wasn’t done by just one person.
“I’m extremely proud of Brian and the work Wessler’s done and all of (the others). It’s amazing it’s going to happen this week. You’re right, there was a lot of fanfare up to this point, but we all knew how necessary it was and I’m just really gratified it’s done. It’s gone well,” Thallemer said.
Davison said the project wasn’t scheduled to be complete until December. “So while the new plant will essentially be online,” there will still be a lot of work to be done, he said.
In another piece of business, the council approved a resolution transferring $50,000 from the grant account back into the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory equipment replacement fund, as requested by Fire Chief Mike Wilson. The grant money came from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security to purchase an emergency generator for the Warsaw City Hall.
Another resolution the council approved Monday declared the designation of property along Enterprise Drive as an economic revitalization area, which will allow BTC Investments LLC to apply for tax abatements on real property.
The property is zoned Commercial-2.
City Planner Jeremy Skinner said the resolution was the first step in the process.
“After approving this declaratory resolution, you would give us the OK to advertise and hold a public hearing at our September council meeting of which you would ultimately approve or deny the creation of the ERA and then be able to approve the tax abatement that is being requested,” Skinner said.
The project is at 133 Enterprise Drive. It’s a 12,000-square-foot expansion. “An existing office building that will house ServeIT. The property owner will be leasing the space, that’s why you don’t see any jobs necessarily listed here, but there will be approximately, I think, around 18 new jobs that will be created and 12,000 square feet of additional facility,” Skinner told the council.
BTC is expending $525,000 for the project.
County attorney Chad Miner, who also is legal counsel for the district, attended the meeting to present the bylaws to the council. However, Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer had city attorney Scott Reust weigh in first on the bylaws because “there’s some language in these bylaws that talks about the provider unit who will use their governing body, which our city attorney interprets as the Board of Works. But I know at the county level, both the county commission and the county council voted on two members each.”
Thallemer said he had Reust look at the state statutes to give an opinion on how Reust thinks the city’s appointment “ought to be made.” Thallemer said it probably won’t change who the city appoints – Utilities Superintendent Brian Davison – but the bylaws need to be correct from the start.
Reust said it appears paragraph 4.1 of the bylaws provides “an appointment by the governing body of the treatment provider.” Reust said the city’s governing body as a treatment provider is the Board of Works. The statute from a Dec. 5, 2019, letter suggests the appointment could be made by an “elected executive or the legislative officers of eligible entities having territory in the district.” The city doesn’t have territory in the district, but gets a seat at the board because it’s tentatively going to be the sewer treatment provider.
Reust said it appears there’s three different ways the appointment to the district board could be made: by the Board of Works, by the mayor or the city council.
“It looks to me that, from the letter, the statute and the bylaws, it could be any one of the three,” Reust said.
Miner said that might be something that needed to be changed and he could coordinate with Reust on that. He said the petition that was filed with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and was approved by IDEM, calls for an appointment by the Warsaw Common Council.
After a half-hour discussion on the appointment and the bylaws, Miner and Reust agreed to sit down and work out the issue and bring the bylaws back for approval. If the bylaws are changed, they will also have to be reapproved by the other boards that approved them.
The bylaws issue was discussed after Davison gave the council an update on the city’s $30 million-plus new wastewater treatment plant expansion that has been in the works for a few years.
“We had anticipated actually starting to take flow from the plant, but that’s been pushed back probably to Wednesday at this point,” Davison said before going through a slide show of photos of the old and new plants. “We are hoping to take flow Wednesday, maybe Thursday, but hopefully Wednesday.”
Asked about the old treatment plant, Davison said they are “reusing everything that we are currently using” and “we are not getting rid of anything.”
Councilwoman Diane Quance said she and Council President Jack Wilhite went to see the plant on Friday and “it was very interesting and really neat to be able to walk up and look down in there and see how it was going to start working.”
Davison said the water will be 20 feet deep. Wilhite agreed it was very interesting.
The engineering is complete, Davison said, and “this location will take the city of Warsaw to ultimately 12 million gallons. After this, we’ll be at 6 million gallons.”
Councilman Mike Klondaris said, “I think it might be worth noting that this council took a lot of heat and a lot of angst in the debate as to whether or not to build this facility. When you see what’s happening, I think we should all be really proud. We should be proud of the mayor, we should be proud of the people who run the plant and I think the council deserves some credit for seeing it through. And I just want to say thanks to everybody. I think it was worth it. We’re growing and we’re moving forward.”
Thallemer said he felt the same way and the $30 million project wasn’t done by just one person.
“I’m extremely proud of Brian and the work Wessler’s done and all of (the others). It’s amazing it’s going to happen this week. You’re right, there was a lot of fanfare up to this point, but we all knew how necessary it was and I’m just really gratified it’s done. It’s gone well,” Thallemer said.
Davison said the project wasn’t scheduled to be complete until December. “So while the new plant will essentially be online,” there will still be a lot of work to be done, he said.
In another piece of business, the council approved a resolution transferring $50,000 from the grant account back into the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory equipment replacement fund, as requested by Fire Chief Mike Wilson. The grant money came from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security to purchase an emergency generator for the Warsaw City Hall.
Another resolution the council approved Monday declared the designation of property along Enterprise Drive as an economic revitalization area, which will allow BTC Investments LLC to apply for tax abatements on real property.
The property is zoned Commercial-2.
City Planner Jeremy Skinner said the resolution was the first step in the process.
“After approving this declaratory resolution, you would give us the OK to advertise and hold a public hearing at our September council meeting of which you would ultimately approve or deny the creation of the ERA and then be able to approve the tax abatement that is being requested,” Skinner said.
The project is at 133 Enterprise Drive. It’s a 12,000-square-foot expansion. “An existing office building that will house ServeIT. The property owner will be leasing the space, that’s why you don’t see any jobs necessarily listed here, but there will be approximately, I think, around 18 new jobs that will be created and 12,000 square feet of additional facility,” Skinner told the council.
BTC is expending $525,000 for the project.
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