New Trustee Rick Paloian, right, was officially sworn in at Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District’s Monday, Aug. 18 meeting. The board discussed the future of funding for the Enchanted Hills water utility, which will be discussed with the State Revolving Fund later this week. Also pictured is Dan Mikolajczak. Photo by Lilli Dwyer.

By Lilli Dwyer
InkFreeNews

CROMWELL — Superintendent Tim Woodward announced the 60-year-old Enchanted Hills water utility may have new hope of receiving grant funding at Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District’s meeting Monday, Aug. 18.

The water utility serves 230 residents in the Enchanted Hills mobile home park in Cromwell. The board has been hoping May’s visit from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management Commissioner Clint Woods would get some attention on the aging plant and better its chances of funding much-needed improvements.

After the visit, the State Revolving Fund agreed to conduct and pay for an income survey of the Enchanted Hills area.

“We scored 87% poverty level in the trailer park … we concentrated on the trailer park and that was my recommendation to (Manager of Technical Review Camille Miner). I said, ‘look, start in the trailer park, do something or we’re going to put wells in and close it down,’” he explained.

The plant’s age, the asbestos concrete pipes and lack of a water tower for storage have made it complicated to maintain since TCRSD inherited it in 1988. Woodward mentioned lines have had to be dug up by hand in the past.

On top of that, the size of the utility versus the cost of the needed improvements have made it hard to secure funding.

TCRSD has already applied for SRF monies to improve its water and wastewater utilities for the past two years. In 2024, it was not found grant fundable. Results for this year are still pending.

A Zoom call with the SRF to talk about possible funding is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 20.

“My thoughts are, if they’re willing to pay for the income study and they’re willing to come up and do it, and schedule a finance meeting, maybe that’s good news,” said Woodward. “… I think we all pushed really hard to get a lot of help and with the commissioner coming, maybe, finally, we can get these people better water. That’s our goal.”

New Trustee, Late Fee Waiver

At the start of meeting, Rick Paloian was sworn in as a trustee, beginning a four-year term.

In his report, board attorney, Andy Boxberger, stated new billing service, Gemini, has had issues with mailing bills out on time.

“I would put a lot of it on the post office. Gemini did say they got it out in time,” said Office Manager Emily Bush.

Boxberger proposed waiving late fees in the month of August, as a number of customers have called saying they have not received their July bills yet. The board approved the waiver.

He also asked the board to sign new certifications for the internal controls training members underwent in 2021, as the previous records can’t be located.

Engineer John Magsam reported progress continues on the rotor project, which will expand sewer plant capacity by 62% after completion. Construction has started on the southern oxidation ditch and startup on the northern ditch is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 25, in time for Labor Day weekend.

Construction on the south side should be done in October, Magsam said.

The board approved a pay order of $30,000 to Mason Engineering for work it’s already done on the project. A change order of $154,404 for additional work on the northside rotors was also approved.

Woodward raised the possibility of IDEM finding an issue during its upcoming inspection next week. Throughout the rotor project and operating within the plant’s 90th percentile, the TCRSD has so far remained violation free and updated IDEM on its progress monthly.

Due to the construction and the amount of line locates TCRSD has been doing for fiberoptic internet companies in past months, however, Woodward said he is still behind where he would like to be in managing the plant.

“I will tell you we’ve had some issues in the collection system the last year; a couple overflows that are not normal. It’s a computer problem that I’m going to resolve,” he said.

He added the system at Buttermilk Point lift station has not been quite right since it was struck by lightning two years ago.

“I don’t think it’ll be an inspection where we have to write a letter back, but I do think that IDEM’s about to come out and we’re going to go over, with the state inspector, some things we’d like to get put in there,” he went on.

Other Business

The board passed a resolution to write off any outstanding checks over two years old.

Madalyn Sade-Bartl of MSB Municipal Solutions said the district has about $24,000 in outstanding checks dating from 2015 to 2022, which will recede back into the funds they came. She stated she suspects many of them were entered into TCRSD’s books twice.

The board also granted permission to close several separate bank accounts, containing just a few thousand dollars each, for ease of management. The monies will be consolidated into one account, while still allocating them for separate funds.

The next Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District meeting will be 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 15.