MILFORD - The decision made by the Milford Town Council last month to discontinue adding fluoride to the town’s drinking water supply didn’t sit well with a couple of residents and they brought a dentist to the meeting to help make their case.
Milford resident and business owner Ron Baumgartner asked to be on the agenda after reading about the decision last month. He told the council, “I’m asking you to reconsider that decision — I think it’s a bad decision.”
He said he spoke to several dentists, who all agreed it was a mistake. He quoted one dentist, Dr. Joe Baumgartner, as saying, “There’s no question that dental hygiene has improved dramatically with the introduction of fluoride.”
Baumgartner said, “I grew up in this town drinking this water.” He said as a child he had several cavities but hasn’t had any in all these years after fluoride was introduced until recently and said it was the same for his children.
“I think it’s a mistake to remove the fluoride — the cost of fluoride treatment for a year is less than the cost of a filling,” he said. “The Center for Disease Control and Prevention proclaimed fluoridation is one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.”
He asked Dr. Steven Hollar to speak. He said he was there as a member of the American Dental Association, longtime dentist, father and grandfather and said he would “ask you to reconsider fluoride.”
He gave a brief history of fluoride in Indiana and said people could visit the website www.ada.org/fluoride for more information. He said 75% of the communities are fluoridated. “Even today with other sources of fluoride, fluoridation in water has 25% decrease in cavities.”
“For the citizens of Milford this is a lay-up. This is an easy way to serve your citizens — especially those who can’t get to my office,” he said, admitting it was a cost to the town, but said they could provide residents “fluoridation for a lifetime for the cost of one filling.”
Councilman Jim Smiley asked for more updated information on the percentage of people drinking water, pointing out that there were three water bottles on the council table so he didn’t think people drank the town’s water. Hollar conceded more people may be drinking bottled water, but they use town water for cooking and other uses.
Councilman Ken Long said, “I’ve been on the board for five years and we talk about this every year. It’s not just about cost; we didn’t just make this decision last month on the fly without looking into it. Some people might have gotten that impression the way it was reported.”
One woman in the audience said there is fluoride in fruits and vegetables and commended the council for their decision.
Council President Doug Ruch suggested looking into it further. “Maybe it’s in the town’s best interest if Ryan (LaReau of Commonwealth) could give us preliminary figures to look at next month.”
As reported last month, for safety reasons they would need to add on to the plant to continue providing fluoride.
This created some friction among council members who wanted to know what he wanted to look at. Long said, “The state doesn’t require it and we made a decision.”
Ruch countered with, “I don’t think we made a decision with all the facts.”
Smiley said he thought LaReau had given them an estimate of well over $50,000 and said his main concern was for the employees and the dangers of handling the fluoride and the lack of space.
Resident Jessica Miller asked if they are going to reconsider the cost, could they also reconsider the risks and benefits. Both Long and Smiley said they weren’t open to reconsidering the matter.
Resident Kevin Dwyer asked if they’d be open to reconsidering it in the near future, saying often people make a decision and wish they would’ve reconsidered. He said he didn’t know why the council would make such a decision without first having a medical professional who deals with it every day giving input.
Long said when it’s come up in the past more residents in attendance at meetings were in favor of removing it versus retaining it. Hollar said it was a divisive topic like politics but said, “I think you’re making a public policy error and for those who don’t like it they can choose not to drink it.” He said he didn’t understand the infrastructure issues and wondered if something recently changed.
Utility Superintendent Steve Marquart responded, saying the state has required several changes concerning how they deal with the chlorine injections, so to comply they have to move it to where they were injecting fluoride, which meant if they were to continue it they would have to add on to the plant. He also said they already removed all the fluoride and equipment after the council voted to remove it, which he was required to do right away so it wouldn’t be accidentally added.
Ruch said if the other council members wouldn’t objectively look at more information there would be no sense in having Commonwealth provide it.
LaReau reminded everyone that when they did the master utility study, they identified five high-priority projects for the water utility. The number one project — replacing the water meters — is now being done as an Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) project. LaReau said the other four would be good for State Revolving Fund (SRF) funding and the deadline to submit projects is the end of March. Those projects are: looping dead water mains, adding filtration at the site of the well, replacing lead service lines and installing a generator and mixer at the water tower.
The total amount of all four projects is estimated to be $5.4 million, however, he later said with the passage of the Build American, Buy American bill relating to equipment, that would increase costs by 40% and would apply to the filtration project so he estimated the increase might be more like $6.8 million.
LaReau said these types of projects tend to score high with SRF and said, “We have no way of projecting what they’d offer but we’ve seen very similar projects receive very favorable grants.”
He told the council there’d be no cost to submit, and they’d be under no obligation to do the projects once they’re ranked or they could choose just to do some. He was asking the council to approve a preliminary engineering report resolution and a signatory authority resolution that would allow the council president to be the signer on the project.
LaReau told them the list would come out in July and at that time they’d know what the state was offering them.
Long wanted people to know that the SRF program was a loan program, and it could mean an increase in rates in order to get these necessary projects done. LaReau said it was a low-interest loan program but other similar projects in similar communities have received 80-90% grants so that was possible.
Jessica Miller wanted to know if there’d be a public meeting about the filtration plant, what they’d be filtering and if they currently have a filtration plant. She was told they did not currently have filtration and they’d be mainly filtering a high level of iron and manganese.
LaReau said manganese was considered to be an emerging contaminant by the EPA. He said they held public meetings in the fall and it was up to the council if they wanted to hold another. Miller asked if she could have a list of all the things they’d be filtering and LaReau said they could provide that.
She also asked about the lead service lines and Marquart explained they mainly have lead connectors. Long said the town water is pumped from a well.
The council approved submitting all four projects and approved both resolutions.
In other business, the council approved:
• Requests by Barb Zimmerman of the Milford Lions for the May festival to provide port-a-potties and electricity for the stage.
• A resolution regarding action by the Redevelopment Commission’s approval of a declaratory resolution for the residential TIF district for the North East subdivision.
• The low quote from Smith Tire in Warsaw for four new tires for a police vehicle at a cost of $1,097.
• Having Jake Service repair the oil leak in a 2012 police vehicle at a cost of $1,653 but in future the chief should get three quotes.
• Midwest Safety invoice of $4,320 for cloud service of the body cameras.
• Repairing chart record at the Wastewater Treatment Plant from B.L. Anderson at a cost of $3,966.
• Paying Beer & Slabaugh $1,700 for manhole repair.
• The annual spring cleanup will be April 25-27.
• Renewing cellular service with Verizon through B.L. Anderson for communication between the well and the tower at a cost of $1,200.
• Paying B.L. Anderson for service performed including updating addresses and replacing battery packs at a cost of $1,331.12.
• Upgrading locate equipment through Batco at a cost of $5,632.20 the lowest of three quotes.
• The low quote for five handheld radios — five Motorola radios at a cost of $2,033.07.
• Extending the Sweetheimer trash contract for another three months to allow the clerk time to get additional quotes.
• The clerk-treasurer attending the Indiana League of Municipal Clerk Treasurers conference next week.
• The annual agreement with Kosciusko County Ambulance Service — Lutheran EMS — to lease part of the community building for $1 per year.
• The use of the community building by the 1300 North Project March 25 from 2-4 p.m. and also by a County Broadband project on March 20 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
• Paying Boyce invoice for annual service for utility billing services at a cost of $7,525 — an 8% increase over last year.