LEESBURG – The Leesburg Town Council voted Monday evening to rollover some $54,000 in untapped federal grant dollars awarded to the town onto the back-end of a sanitary sewer loan.
Following the advice of an accountant with Umbaugh and Associates last month, the board unanimously approved to put the federal funds toward the 40-year sanitary sewer loan.
The grant was awarded to the town for rural redevelopment, but was well over what the town required, said board president Tom Moore. The town does not have direct access to the funds in any account; they are federal grant dollars that would need to be drawn from.
Moore said the payment would not lower the town’s monthly payments on the loan, but would take roughly one month off the back-end.
The board also voted to clarify language in a current town ordinance concerning multiple structures on a residential property feeding into the sewer. Moore voiced a concern with the board, saying a drive through town shows roughly 50 percent of central Leesburg properties have an outbuilding on the property, and language needs to be written in case a business with that draws from the sewer is established in those outbuildings.
The board asked town attorney Vern Landis to draft language suggesting the town not “double dip” on residents with multiple sewer feeds. The new ordinance also will say that a business on a property will be termed as a business if it hits eight employees, at which point it will be classified as a commercial property for sewer purposes.
Landis said he would have the new language by the October board meeting.
In other business, the board approved the appropriation of $250 for the antique cannon on the meeting hall lawn to be repainted.
The town also will refurbish holiday decorations in anticipation for the upcoming season, though no monies were earmarked for the task yet.
Street Commissioner Brandon Queen told the board the Indiana Department of Transportation widening project of Ind. 15 is progressing, though no timetable for completion was announced. The repaved Smith Street will be reopened Friday, Queen said.
