County Commissioners Bob Conley, center, and Brad Jackson, right, listen to county attorney Ed Ormsby’s comments about an Atwood property at the commissioners meeting Tuesday. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — The next steps for East Webster Lake to be included into the Tippecanoe Chapman Regional Sewer District are being taken, the Kosciusko County Commissioners heard Tuesday, Feb. 13.

Steve Henschen, engineer with Jones Petrie Rafinski Corp., the engineering firm for the TCRSD, reminded the commissioners the sewer district agreed to be a sponsor for the East Webster Lake service area. The commissioners participated in some funding for that, he said, and the study has been completed. The formal application and the preliminary engineering report has been reviewed and accepted by the TCRSD.

He said that means the next step is to submit it to the State Revolving Fund, which is an agency under the Indiana Finance Authority that funds these types of wastewater projects.

“In talking with the district and the district’s legal counsel, we think our next step for that is to have a memorandum of understanding prepared between the regional sewer district and the commissioners, again, with an idea that if we get funding, then the commissioners would agree to do an application for inclusion of territory for the East Webster Lake service area,” Henschen explained.

The territory would include around 200 homes.

The sewer district’s attorney will reach out to county attorney Ed Ormsby to come up with some language for the MOU.

“The thing is, if we don’t address how this East Webster Lake territory would be funded or organized or run, our chances of getting funding are very low. So we need to have a plan in place,” Henschen said.

He said the expectation is that the MOU would be presented to the commissioners in the next two to four weeks for their review and eventual action.

“What we’d like to do is have that accomplished by the end of March cause that is the cut-off date for us to submit full applications to SRF for funding for the next fiscal year,” Henschen said.

Ormsby said East Webster’s inclusion is contingent upon that financing, and the MOU will help get the financing.

“If we do get the financing, the inclusion of the East Webster will not increase the rates of the participants in the (TCRSD) that are currently there,” Ormsby said.

If the project does proceed with funding, Henschen said, “there’d be some shared costs to help bring their costs down, but no added costs to the existing district operations.”

There was a formal public hearing on it, Henschen said, with 40-50 people attending and “there really was no negative comments at all regarding the project,” though there were some questions.

Henschen also presented to the commissioners a request for inclusion of territory in the TCRSD for Jeff Carey.

“The inclusion for territory is similar to several we’ve presented to you over the last year or so, and this specific request has come from Mr. Jeff Carey. He owns two acres, just outside of district territory on T25 and just south of Stanton Road, and it’s on the west side of T25,” Henschen said.

Carey approached the district and said he would like to develop those two acres with one or two homes and wanted to be included in the sewer project.

“Because our project has already had funds committed and all, the process at this point is that if someone wants to come in, they’d have to agree to pay for the sewer extension to that property,” Henschen said. “And while this is just outside of the district territory, our line is several hundred feet away, and he has agreed that he would be willing to pay the cost for that sewer line extension, as well as for putting a grinder station on that property to serve these future houses.”

The sewer district has already agreed informally to bring Carey’s property in, but the process requires that the county commissioners approve the application for inclusion of territory first. After that’s been approved, the district will formally accept it and then it gets sent off to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management where it will be incorporated into the project.

The commissioners approved the application for inclusion.

Overall, the TCRSD project is moving along well and is about 65% complete, Henschen said. Chapman Lake possibly could be coming online earlier than the rest of the project because that phase of the project is advancing, he said, maybe by May or June. The rest of the sewer project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

In other business, the commissioners:

• Heard from Veteran Service Officer Darryl McDowell that the Military Veteran Stand Down, hosted by Goodwill, in Kosciusko County will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, April 12 at the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion, 119 E. Canal St., Warsaw. Further details have not been posted yet, he said.

• Approved a resolution for the transfer of the property at 121 E. Main St., Atwood, from Prairie Township to the commissioners. The county will fund the demolition expenses for the property.

The commissioners also approved a bid from SAR Excavating for $32,313 for the demolition. The other bid from SiteWorx Services was for $33,900.

• Approved furniture for the Circuit Court chambers from KDA Furniture & Interiors for $12,768.96, as requested by County Administrator Marsha McSherry. The other bid was from Reinholt’s Furniture for $13,129.17.

• Approved a change order for the Justice Building renovation project for $205,741. McSherry said the change order falls under the 20% that can be spent from the base bid of the project. The base bid is $1,684,200.

“This would include the restrooms that need the tiles replaced on all floors. This would be ceiling tile replacement in several rooms — that means the full ceiling tiles replaced and some others it’s just the replacement of some of the worst tiles at that point. And four other rooms that were not included in the original part of the project,” she said.

McSherry said the project officially was started Monday. The first phase is moving furniture out Thursday and Friday. Next week, they’ll start tearing out carpet and wallpaper and get started on that, she said. The first phase has to do with the Circuit Court and staffing for the court in the north part of the second floor of the Justice Building.

• Approved a supplemental agreement with USI Consultants Inc. for an additional $20,000 for bridge No. 123, as requested by Highway Department Superintendent Steve Moriarty. The additional cost is for civil engineering on the pedestrian trail or path that will be attached to the bridge, he said. The bridge is on Packerton Road over Cherry Creek, south of Pierceton Road.

• Approved the purchase of a total patcher Model T 7500 for $96,900 for the Highway Department, as requested by Moriarty. He said the money was in the budget and it’s through a Sourcewell contract.

“This is to get shallow potholes and also seal up alligatoring spots throughout the roadways in Kosciusko County,” he stated.

• Approved the quarterly claim for the Kosciusko Area Bus Service, as presented by General Manager Steve Lockridge.
“We are requesting $118,100 from the federal government and $16,250 from the state and the local of $100,333,” he said.

• Approved for Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Mike Mulligan to apply for an SRT grant for four body-worn cameras and three years of storage. It’s a 50-50 matching grant. The total cost is $9,094 so the KCSO would be responsible for half of that through its budget. The County Council approved the grant application at its meeting Thursday.

• Heard the quarterly update on the County Extension Office from Director Andrew Ferrell and health and human science educator Shannon Shepherd.

• Reviewed the commissary report from Sheriff Jim Smith.

The next commissioners meeting is at 9 a.m. Feb. 27.