By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WINONA LAKE — Winona Lake Town Council members have heard various concerns from residents related to a proposed stormwater fee ordinance.

The council held a hearing on the ordinance on Tuesday, Dec. 1. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the meeting was a hybrid of in-person and online, with members in attendance at Winona Lake Town Hall or watching virtually via Zoom.

The ordinance would establish a $5 monthly stormwater user fee charged to property owners starting on Jan. 1.

The fee would then rise to $7 per month in 2022 and $9 per month in 2023.

According to the ordinance, the rates would be flat for single-family homes, mobile homes, apartments with no more than three units and home-based businesses.

Those owning non-residential property or multi-unit property with more than three units would pay a rate based on the amount of surface area that doesn’t absorb stormwater divided by 3,800 square feet.

The council will vote on the ordinance at its next regular meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15. That meeting is to be online only via Zoom.

Before citizens could voice concerns at Dec. 1’s meeting, the town had Mary Atkins of Wessler Engineering of Indianapolis and Deen Rogers, CPA with Baker Tilly, explained some of the reasoning behind the ordinance. Both helped in the planning of the proposal.

Atkins explained that stormwater in Winona Lake flows either into Winona Lake, Pike Lake or Wyland Ditch. She noted to calculate measurements for the fee, 50 residential properties in the town were looked at.

It was also brought up that the town had a study committee of various experts working on planning the ordinance for quite some time. Winona Lake’s planned rate was also compared to various other Indiana towns, ranging from Angola’s $4.06 monthly rate to Tipton’s $13.05 monthly fee.

Fees from the ordinance are intended to help pay for various stormwater projects.

“We’re getting more projects and we’re getting larger projects,” explained Town Manager Craig Allebach. It was explained that the $9 rate is needed to generate enough money to pay for projects. However, the town wants to ease people into it starting out with the $5 rate in 2021.

Allebach explained that so far the town has used money from state Community Crossings Matching Grant funds and Motor Vehicle Highway funds among others to pay for stormwater work. However, he noted that with COVID-19 fewer people are driving, which means that less money will go into MVH funds since gas tax money helps contribute towards those.

Three residents expressed concerns.

Jerry Nelson had a number of questions, including if the council would reexamine the fees each year to determine if they were still merited. The council is to do that.

Nelson also noted that one of his properties in the town has a compacted gravel driveway and asked why that counted as a surface that didn’t absorb water.

Atkins responded that the material does absorb water somewhat, but it still has runoff.

Nate Bosch, director of the Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams, also spoke.

He asked that the council be prudent with future stormwater projects to ensure that they don’t cause harm to the Winona Lake environment.

Carl Lauster also spoke. He inquired why it was necessary for him to pay the fee since he doesn’t have a drain near his home that stormwater flows into.

He was told that fees collectively would help pay for stormwater improvements that would benefit the community.