NORTH WEBSTER – After days of digging through piles and boxes of old records, attorney Andrew Boxberger recommended the Lakeland Regional Sewer District seek formal recognition of dedicated county roads in order to gain right of way access. Boxberger recommended at the sewer district meeting Thursday that the board ask Kosciusko County Commissioners to officially recognize county roads within the district that old records show were dedicated but may not be formally recognized in the county system today. Such a resolution would give the district right of way access for main sewer line installation in cases where it has not received easements. Now sitting at 81.5 percent of its goal, the district is still seeking about 220 easements for main line installation, board President Jim Haney said. Boxberger said the need for 30 easements was eliminated when county records were found on a couple roads where the district may have right of way access, but commissioner action is needed on a few others. The board can provide its findings and make its case to commissioners, who he said declined to get involved when the idea was raised a year ago – either out of a desire not to be involved in the project, or a misunderstanding over EMS lanes, which the county does not maintain. Along with its findings, he said the board could present a prepared resolution recognizing that those roads have right of ways the county uses. “The resolution says ‘We’re already doing this, it was just never formalized,’” Boxberger told the board. “We dusted off old records of what was dedicated or not (and) part of this resolution is just making it official.” The downside to the county in recognizing the roads would be if property owners became angry over it or if the county was unwilling to maintain them if it doesn’t already, the board heard. The board also heard that contracting with Kosciusko REMC to provide electricity to power grinder pumps in front of properties could add up to an $8 a month savings on user bills, though it may require capacity upgrades on several properties. Haney also observed that public perception is a concern, since the board had never discussed installing electrical lines in addition to sewer lines. And members heard that construction, scheduling and redesign cost for bypassing between 15 and 60 property owners who flatly refuse line installation could range from $1,000 to $13,000 each. The board heard it may be best to wait until the number of refusals is as small as possible.
