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Canaan Estates, a small subdivision northeast of Winona Lake, is in a jam.
Septic systems at two of the lots recently failed and others aren't that good. So neighbors got together and offered to pay the entire cost of running a lateral line to Winona Lake's sewer system, which piggybacks off the treatment plant operated by the city of Warsaw.
But the idea is going nowhere because of a lack of available sewer capacity within the city system.
Warsaw City Council voted Monday against the request by Canaan Estates.
Winona Lake Town Council was willing to support the venture, but advised the group to take their case to Warsaw, which has final authority on the issue.
In preparation, property owners of the 17 lots had an engineer lined up and were willing to pay the $80,000 to construct the sewer line, said Irv Lindemuth, the group's spokesman.
Home owners and lot owners were willing to pay $3,600 while duplex owners would pay $7,200.
Without a link to the sewer, individual septics using a mound system would cost between $7,000 and $11,000 each, Lindemuth said.
The lots are located off Wooster Road near Merrywood Mobile Home Park.
The hook-on would have been simple because a sewer line from Winona Lake was extended right past the neighborhood to Merrywood a few years ago.
The Merrywood extension was made at the insistence of the state as part of a settlement with the city over an existing fine.
Winona Lake Town Council President Brent Wilcoxson said Winona Lake doesn't have the authority to help the neighbors. Lindemuth's new proposal is probably moot.
"I don't care if it's one (spur) or 20 because Warsaw still has the final right (decision)," Wilcoxson said.
Monday's vote came on the recommendation of David Van Dyke, Warsaw's pretreatment director, who urged in a report that the city "must avoid" approval of future sewer extensions outside the city.
"The remaining usable capacity of our existing treatment plan will be needed for those areas (within the city) which have not yet been sewered," the report said.
Capacity is so limited that the city is taking a look-see approach to requests from industry outside the city wanting to hook onto city sewer. Industry is looked upon more favorably than residential because industry generates more revenues from standard agreements in which the company pays 50 percent of what it would pay in city property taxes plus sewer fees and the cost to connect.
But Mayor Ernie Wiggins said the city remains committed to extending sewers to city residents before those outside city limits.
He said they are looking at sewer extensions on Country Club Road because many of the residents have sought the service. The city will host a neighborhood meeting this spring before any plans are finalized, he said.
City and town officials would like to convey their concerns to the county since Canaan Estates is in an unincorporated part of the county, Wiggins said.
Lindemuth said he has also sent a letter to the county voicing his concern.
Kosciusko County has twice refused to support adoption of an economic development income tax in recent years that would have funded sewer expansion. Wiggins said he believes relations with the county are slowly improving.
"Winona Lake and Warsaw do have an interest together in talking with the county and forging those relationships and telling them of our plight here," he said.
