Commissioners Hear Proposal For 4th Sewer District
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
A proposal for a fourth regional sewer district in the county was presented to the Kosciusko County Commissioners Tuesday.
Ken Jones, president and chief executive officer of consulting firm Jones Petrie Rafinski Corp. (JPR), said back in 2019, he was asked by a group of property owners of east Webster Lake to attend a planning meeting on a Saturday.
“They talked to me about what some of the struggles were that they had been dealing with relative to septic system sustainability and what they thought would be, maybe it was time to begin an effort to overcome that issue in their neighborhood,” he said.
There’s about 187 homes in that area and is the “very last” area of Webster Lake that does not have sanitary sewer, Jones said.
“Some of those homes on Webster Lake are in the town of North Webster; others are served through the town of North Webster through a rural sewage system that kind of goes around the lake,” he said.
“We worked together when we were in the planning stages of the Tippecanoe-Chapman Regional Sewer District, and we started right from scratch like we talked about today with this new district,” he said.
Jones said they went to the other regional sewer districts in the county - Turkey Creek, Lakeland and Tippecanoe-Chapman - to make sure there wasn’t some interest by the other districts in expanding their jurisdiction to take in these 187 homes. All declined the request.
“So now we’re back to talking to the Commissioners about the potential for a fourth regional sewer district in the county,” Jones said, adding that he doesn’t think this will be the last time the Commissioners will be asked to do something similar “because there are other areas of the county that were identified in previous studies that probably are going to need to be addressed at some point.”
With the east Webster Lake group, Jones said he was “really impressed” by their tenacity to engage with the neighbors and develop a consensus.
“So the current group ... grabbed a hold of this in 2021 and really pushed it forward. So they conducted a community survey by mail and face-to-face, and they were able to develop, out of those 187 homes, at least 150 or more are in favor of proceeding with some kind of septic system relief program within that neighborhood,” Jones said.
He said he did a mini-engineering study to gauge the service area and cost. “We also analyzed the need from a level that we typically would want to share with you. So, for this 182 homes, and in this area, all but just a few of the sites are substandard-sized home sites, which means they are struggling with the co-compliant replacement or repair of their existing septic systems,” he said.
Every person who responded to the survey had concerns for the environment and recognized there was a need to address the sewer issues there, Jones indicated.
“In every other scenario, when we’re talking about septic system relief, we’re also talking about housing sustainability,” he said. “In every case, we want to make sure that there’s no impediment for those residents to stay right where they are and do it safely and actually take responsibility for the wastewater that they generate on their site. And, in a lot of cases, it can’t be done on your own, it has to be done as a community.”
Jones said residents had concerns about the values of their homes that don’t have sanitary sewer compared to other parts of the lake where homes have it.
“The conclusions that we came to when we put together the study was that there was probably one really good option, maybe a couple others, but really the one we gravitated to was a potential for an agreement between this new regional sewer district and Knapp Lake. Knapp Lake, of course, is in Noble County, but their sanitary sewer comes all the way into Kosciusko County and connects to the town of North Webster’s treatment works. And, their interceptor force main comes right through the north edge of the neighborhood that we’re talking about today,” Jones explained.
He said Knapp Lake was 100% in favor.
“When they built their system, they planned for a volume that never developed in their community. And, by the way, that community is about the same size as this one,” he said. “So there’s a pipe that comes by the site that has more than enough capacity for this 182 homes to connect with.”
Jones said they did recommend to the east Webster Lake residents a low-pressure sewer as the construction corridors are very tight.
“So, this would be another directional drill sanitary sewer with grinder pump station, hopefully, at every two homes. Something in that neighborhood,” he said.
As for the cost of the project at this point in time, Jones said it was around - with the non-construction costs - $4.4 million. He said with all the projects JPR has been processing over the last five years, they’ve had “very good” responses and partnerships with the Indiana Finance Authority through the State Revolving Fund and with the U.S. Department of Agriculture through their Rural Development program. He said he thinks it’s one of the most “attractive” times to build infrastructure projects.
“Right now, we believe, just like in the Tippecanoe-Chapman lakes project that we’re going to target a rate and that we’re going to work with those agencies to get to that rate,” Jones said.
To move the regional sewer district project forward, Jones said the property owners would need to request a partnership with the county, potentially for funding the petition preparation, which includes the required preliminary engineering and fiscal reports. In the Tippecanoe-Chapman project, Jones said the fiscal adviser was Baker Tilly, who ballparked their figure for this project at $5,000 to $10,000. JPR’s fee would be around $20,500 or less. A legal counsel - possibly Ice Miller out of Indianapolis - also would be needed.
“By the way, we’re not expecting you to make a snap decision on this today. We’re introducing a brand new project to you, so we’re expecting you to consider this, think about it and maybe next month we come back and talk about it again,” Jones said.
He said they also would make a presentation to the County Council, and the Commissioners have to agree to proceed with the project or it doesn’t move forward.
A potential timeline for the project would be completing a petition and the preliminary engineering report by mid-summer; holding a public hearing in late summer; and filing the petition in early fall, if it moves that fast. Formation would be done at the end of 2022 or early 2023, assuming that there wasn’t any significant remonstrance or other snags, he said.
The town of North Webster, Knapp Lake and the group of east Webster Lake residents have been having interlocal discussions on the project, Jones said. “It looks like those partners are ready to make a deal,” he said.
Commissioner Cary Groninger asked how much potential cost would there be to the county. Jones said without knowing the cost for their legal advisor, he estimated somewhere in the $50,000 to $60,000 range, but expenses for district formation would be reimbursable.
