NORTH WEBSTER – About a dozen property owners expressed interest in joining the Lakeland Regional Sewer District after receiving notice of a plan to allow new hookups during construction, but more are still coming forward during board meetings. The district sent letters to the owners of 77 properties which were excluded from project plans, either because they didn’t sign easements or because they are new property owners, informing them of the process for joining. Fourteen of them – nine who were bypassed and five new owners – showed interest and sent a deposit to have an estimate drawn up for sewer line and grinder pump installation, the board heard Thursday. The procedure allows excluded property owners to pay a total of $530 for engineering firm DLZ to draft plans for sewer hookup, which will allow them to then get a contractor’s estimate for the work while contractors are currently in the area doing installations. The deadline to express interest is Feb. 15. Another few property owners spoke up at the end of the meeting asking how they could be included. One of them, Sara Ball, said she recently bought a home on Kuhn Lake for herself and her children but didn’t receive any paperwork on the district because it was mailed to the property owner, who was incarcerated at the time. She said her concern now is how to pay to have the grinder and lines installed when she still owes $8,000 on the house. District attorney Andy Boxberger advised her to have a lawyer look at the home purchase contract, and said she might be able to argue that the property owner is in breach of contract for not keeping her updated on the mailings. Boxberger said she could tell him she’s going to put that $8,000 toward the installation instead. A process is now in place for property owners who think they might qualify for a Section 504 Home Repair program loan, board President Jim Haney announced during the meeting. He said residents in the district can call the office, at 574-529-2383, to learn how to start the process. The program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, provides loans to “very-low-income homeowners to repair, improve or modernize their homes” or grants to “elderly very-low-income homeowners to remove health and safety hazards,” according to USDA information. To qualify for the maximum $20,000, 20-year-term loan, the resident must be the homeowner and occupy the house, be unable to obtain affordable credit elsewhere and have a family income below 50 percent of the area median income; for grants, a max of $7,500, the resident must be age 62 or older and not be able to repay a repair loan, according to the USDA. Also during the meeting, the board: • Voted to send a 120-day overdue notice to a little over 100 residents who have never paid their bills from the district. Jennifer Ransbottom with Jones Petrie Rafinski, which handles billing for the district, said she’s confident these are people receiving the bills but ignoring them, rather than people whose bills were not delivered properly. They have 20 days to respond for the overdue notice, after which the district will send a pre-lien letter and start the lien process. • Approved pay applications of $2,850 for collection system section A, $127,296 for section B and $341,296 for section C; and $224,979 for the wastewater treatment plant and $69,880 to DLZ for administration and inspection.
