Commissioners Approve ARPA Money For Sewer District
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
County Commissioners on Tuesday approved for one of the three regional sewer districts in Kosciusko to receive American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.
Requests from the other two regional sewer districts in the county were denied, but they can still apply for ARPA funding for other needs.
The County ARPA Committee unanimously recommended to the Commissioners that the Lakeland Regional Sewer District (LRSD) receive $100,000 for bulk storage and $150,000 for sludge equipment.
Commissioner Cary Groninger, who sits on the committee, said LRSD came to the committee with a couple upgrades to their system.
“These upgrades do have a cost-benefit as far as a reduction of their costs going forward. And part of the decision the ARPA Committee made as we looked at some of the different applications we had, this was one of those that we’re trying to make a long-term investment in with our ARPA funds - things that will have a lasting impact - and this was something that there was a good ORI on these investments in this equipment that will reduce costs going forward for the district to help maintain lower sewer bills for that district going forward,” Groninger said.
Commissioner Brad Jackson asked about the other two regional sewer districts in the county and if they made any requests for ARPA funds.
Groninger said Tippecanoe-Chapman and Turkey Creek regional sewer districts also made requests.
“Turkey Creek’s request was denied at the last ARPA Committee meeting,” he said. “There was a request that they made with something that was contradicting to what ... the Highway Department had asked them to do as far as the location of their sewer line being laid. They were wanting us to pay for a road to be reconstructed for a new sewer line and we had just reconstructed that road just a couple years ago and there had been multiple conversations to move that outside of the street and they continued to design it down the streets. We felt as though we had paid for the reconstruction of that road once and we weren’t going to pay for it a second time.”
Jackson asked if Turkey Creek could come back with some other ARPA funding request, and Groninger said they could with something that was “better fitting with what we’re trying to do.”
Tippecanoe-Chapman’s request also was denied.
“It was denied based upon a couple factors,” Groninger said. “One, this is the only sewer district the county had funded to get started originally, so there was some funds that were given to them then. And the request that they had made was also for acquisition of properties and, according to the website and other information that we had at the time we made the decision, that was pretty well accomplished.”
If Tippecanoe-Chapman has something in the future they would like to apply for ARPA funds for, he said they could do that as well.
Commissioner Bob Conley said his major concern was that if they provide ARPA funds to one sewer district, they would have to provide funding to the rest of them, but it sounded like the ARPA Committee mitigated that concern. He made the motion to accept the unanimous recommendation of the committee, Jackson seconded it and it was approved 3-0.
