Tippy-Chapman Sewer District Board Preliminarily Votes For Warsaw As Treatment Provider
May 12, 2020 at 3:04 a.m.
By David [email protected]
The determination was made after Ken Jones, of engineering firm Jones Petrie Rafinski, gave the board of trustees some preliminary insight to budgeting and a comparison between regionalization with Warsaw and with Lakeland Regional Sewer District. By choosing Warsaw preliminarily, that gave the city the seventh and final seat on the board, which was filled by Warsaw Utility Superintendent Brian Davison.
At Monday’s monthly meeting, which was the first since March’s initial board meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the board elected its officers after sixth member Kim Hathaway was sworn in. Hathaway had missed the March meeting. Jon Tyler was voted in as president, with Chuck Simpson as vice president and Hathaway as secretary-treasurer.
Attorney Chad Miner reported he and board member Ed Orsmby – who was taking part electronically – were still discussing the indemnification language in the bylaws, but would present the board bylaws to the full board at its June meeting. The board tabled the bylaws until then.
Tyler was still working on the mission statement, so that also was tabled until the June meeting.
Jones then took the floor for preliminary discussion on the district’s budgeting.
“One of the things that the board is going to have to consider is how we’re going to develop an operating budget early in the process here. ... As we get into the development and operation and business of the trustees, we’re going to have to consider how we’re going to pay for things, how we’re going to develop some funding for general expenses, but also the expenses of the advisors that you will need to procure,” Jones said.
The advisors the board would need to figure out how to pay for would include legal counsel, bond counsel, fiscal advisor and engineer. Jones suggested to the board that they could direct he and Miner to come back to the board with options in June, which would also give Jones and Miner a chance to study the matter a little longer.
So far, he said, the county commissioners loaned money to the project.
When Jones and Miner come back to the board next month, Jones said they’d have “a range between X and Y in needs of funding. So that would include things like being able to pay for reproduction costs, mailing, advertisings and then the initiating fees of the advisors” for the project.
Jones said the board would need to pay its bills for legal counsel going forward because he has to be there at the meetings.
“From the JPR standpoint, a primary focus right now is to qualify the project for funding; also at the same time complete your obligation to file a facility plan with the IDEM commissioner,” Jones said. “We’re required within nine months to file that facility plan. Basically, the document we use to form the district is pretty complete.”
He said JPR’s initial fees would be related to completing the facility plan and submitting the preliminary engineer report to the state for funding. As a part of that, there will be a necessary analysis done by a subconsultant at JPR, which would be for the wetlands, historic and archeological studies that are required to qualify the district for funding by federal resources.
The fiscal advisor – Jeff Rowe of Baker Tilly, who was not present – will be needed to help complete the application to the Indiana Finance Committee. The other advisor needed will be for bond counsel, which Jones recommended as Ice Miller out of Indianapolis.
“Regardless of where this funding is sourced, everything we do going forward between now and actually securing the capital funding for the project is a reimbursable expense to the proceeds of that grant package, whatever it might be,” Jones said.
The board agreed by consensus to have Jones and Miner look into an initial budget for the district.
Jones then gave the board a little bit of a timeline for moving forward. “Our goal is to advance the commission of the qualifying preliminary hearing report and its submission to the IFA as soon as possible. The goal there is to get it in front of them before the end of their next fiscal year, which would be the end of June 2021. That way, as soon as we submit it, we get that dialogue with them to determine our needs, what the project includes, what we can do to reduce costs or what we can do to complete it,” he said.
He said the goal would be to get the preliminary engineering report submitted within the next three to four months, depending when the district board provides the notice to proceed.
“As far as budgeting and funding, there would be at least two steps before the financing,” Jones said. The first would be the “really basic needs,” with the second being the “hard design.”
Tyler then asked Jones to talk about the preliminary determination on treatment provider.
Jones compared Lakeland Regional Sewer District with Warsaw, the two existing treatment providers, and not the option of creating a whole new wastewater treatment facility because of costs. He said Lakeland will continue to consider it but would need a “lot more detail.” The financial advisor for Lakeland provided Jones with the preliminary figures, which were not determined by Lakeland. The numbers were based on Lakeland’s operating budget and what the fiscal advisor thought were appropriate. If Tippy-Chapman went with Lakeland, Lakeland would want Tippy-Chapman to fund the full cost of an analysis for better figures.
Under construction costs, regionalization with Lakeland would total an estimated $41,996,900, while with Warsaw it would total $37,462,380. Jones said the significant part of those costs were the treatment costs. Lakeland’s would be $8,548,200, with Warsaw’s at $5,645,800.
There also would be estimated costs for annual treatment expenses and connection system operation. Lakeland’s would total an estimated $402,375, while Warsaw’s would be $463,000. Jones noted Lakeland’s treatment charges have not been confirmed by Lakeland.
“What the difference in capital costs (of the Lakeland option) would mean over a 20-year life of a loan from the SRF at 2.5% ... we’re thinking it’s about a $2.9 million difference in that we would see that cost with interest go up to about $3.7 million over that 20-year period,” Jones said.
He said what it boiled down to was that going with the city of Warsaw for a treatment provider “makes the most sense” based on what was known.
Simpson asked if Warsaw has the capacity. Davison said Warsaw is in the process of completing a wastewater plant expansion, going from a 3.9 million gallons a day capacity to 6 million. Current treatment is about 3.5-3.75 million gallons a day. The $30 million project is expected to be completed by late fall, Davison said. Jones said the Tippecanoe-Chapman district would be just under 400,000 gallons a day.
Board member Jeff Thornburgh said everything presented makes sense and he made the motion to make a preliminary determination to make the city of Warsaw the district’s treatment provider. It was unanimously approved. Davison was then sworn in as the seventh board member.
The last bit of business by the board was to approve a resolution in reference to temporary storage holding tanks. It would allow property owners, who build or rebuild homes on property within the district, to have temporary storage holding tanks until such time as the sewer system is in place.
The next meeting is 6:30 p.m. June 8.
The determination was made after Ken Jones, of engineering firm Jones Petrie Rafinski, gave the board of trustees some preliminary insight to budgeting and a comparison between regionalization with Warsaw and with Lakeland Regional Sewer District. By choosing Warsaw preliminarily, that gave the city the seventh and final seat on the board, which was filled by Warsaw Utility Superintendent Brian Davison.
At Monday’s monthly meeting, which was the first since March’s initial board meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the board elected its officers after sixth member Kim Hathaway was sworn in. Hathaway had missed the March meeting. Jon Tyler was voted in as president, with Chuck Simpson as vice president and Hathaway as secretary-treasurer.
Attorney Chad Miner reported he and board member Ed Orsmby – who was taking part electronically – were still discussing the indemnification language in the bylaws, but would present the board bylaws to the full board at its June meeting. The board tabled the bylaws until then.
Tyler was still working on the mission statement, so that also was tabled until the June meeting.
Jones then took the floor for preliminary discussion on the district’s budgeting.
“One of the things that the board is going to have to consider is how we’re going to develop an operating budget early in the process here. ... As we get into the development and operation and business of the trustees, we’re going to have to consider how we’re going to pay for things, how we’re going to develop some funding for general expenses, but also the expenses of the advisors that you will need to procure,” Jones said.
The advisors the board would need to figure out how to pay for would include legal counsel, bond counsel, fiscal advisor and engineer. Jones suggested to the board that they could direct he and Miner to come back to the board with options in June, which would also give Jones and Miner a chance to study the matter a little longer.
So far, he said, the county commissioners loaned money to the project.
When Jones and Miner come back to the board next month, Jones said they’d have “a range between X and Y in needs of funding. So that would include things like being able to pay for reproduction costs, mailing, advertisings and then the initiating fees of the advisors” for the project.
Jones said the board would need to pay its bills for legal counsel going forward because he has to be there at the meetings.
“From the JPR standpoint, a primary focus right now is to qualify the project for funding; also at the same time complete your obligation to file a facility plan with the IDEM commissioner,” Jones said. “We’re required within nine months to file that facility plan. Basically, the document we use to form the district is pretty complete.”
He said JPR’s initial fees would be related to completing the facility plan and submitting the preliminary engineer report to the state for funding. As a part of that, there will be a necessary analysis done by a subconsultant at JPR, which would be for the wetlands, historic and archeological studies that are required to qualify the district for funding by federal resources.
The fiscal advisor – Jeff Rowe of Baker Tilly, who was not present – will be needed to help complete the application to the Indiana Finance Committee. The other advisor needed will be for bond counsel, which Jones recommended as Ice Miller out of Indianapolis.
“Regardless of where this funding is sourced, everything we do going forward between now and actually securing the capital funding for the project is a reimbursable expense to the proceeds of that grant package, whatever it might be,” Jones said.
The board agreed by consensus to have Jones and Miner look into an initial budget for the district.
Jones then gave the board a little bit of a timeline for moving forward. “Our goal is to advance the commission of the qualifying preliminary hearing report and its submission to the IFA as soon as possible. The goal there is to get it in front of them before the end of their next fiscal year, which would be the end of June 2021. That way, as soon as we submit it, we get that dialogue with them to determine our needs, what the project includes, what we can do to reduce costs or what we can do to complete it,” he said.
He said the goal would be to get the preliminary engineering report submitted within the next three to four months, depending when the district board provides the notice to proceed.
“As far as budgeting and funding, there would be at least two steps before the financing,” Jones said. The first would be the “really basic needs,” with the second being the “hard design.”
Tyler then asked Jones to talk about the preliminary determination on treatment provider.
Jones compared Lakeland Regional Sewer District with Warsaw, the two existing treatment providers, and not the option of creating a whole new wastewater treatment facility because of costs. He said Lakeland will continue to consider it but would need a “lot more detail.” The financial advisor for Lakeland provided Jones with the preliminary figures, which were not determined by Lakeland. The numbers were based on Lakeland’s operating budget and what the fiscal advisor thought were appropriate. If Tippy-Chapman went with Lakeland, Lakeland would want Tippy-Chapman to fund the full cost of an analysis for better figures.
Under construction costs, regionalization with Lakeland would total an estimated $41,996,900, while with Warsaw it would total $37,462,380. Jones said the significant part of those costs were the treatment costs. Lakeland’s would be $8,548,200, with Warsaw’s at $5,645,800.
There also would be estimated costs for annual treatment expenses and connection system operation. Lakeland’s would total an estimated $402,375, while Warsaw’s would be $463,000. Jones noted Lakeland’s treatment charges have not been confirmed by Lakeland.
“What the difference in capital costs (of the Lakeland option) would mean over a 20-year life of a loan from the SRF at 2.5% ... we’re thinking it’s about a $2.9 million difference in that we would see that cost with interest go up to about $3.7 million over that 20-year period,” Jones said.
He said what it boiled down to was that going with the city of Warsaw for a treatment provider “makes the most sense” based on what was known.
Simpson asked if Warsaw has the capacity. Davison said Warsaw is in the process of completing a wastewater plant expansion, going from a 3.9 million gallons a day capacity to 6 million. Current treatment is about 3.5-3.75 million gallons a day. The $30 million project is expected to be completed by late fall, Davison said. Jones said the Tippecanoe-Chapman district would be just under 400,000 gallons a day.
Board member Jeff Thornburgh said everything presented makes sense and he made the motion to make a preliminary determination to make the city of Warsaw the district’s treatment provider. It was unanimously approved. Davison was then sworn in as the seventh board member.
The last bit of business by the board was to approve a resolution in reference to temporary storage holding tanks. It would allow property owners, who build or rebuild homes on property within the district, to have temporary storage holding tanks until such time as the sewer system is in place.
The next meeting is 6:30 p.m. June 8.
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