Jeff Hersha, pictured right, principal with Jones & Henry Engineers; and Shannon McLeod, pictured left, with Baker Tilly, speak to the Kosciusko County Commissioners Tuesday, Sept. 23, about a Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District project and grant application. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District’s water utility project received the support and endorsement of the Kosciusko County Commissioners on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

In asking for the commissioners’ support, Shannon McLeod, with Baker Tilly, said, “The reason that we are here this morning is we’ve got a project that we’d like to talk to you about that Turkey Creek would like to pursue.”

She reminded the commissioners Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District (TCRSD) provides sanitary sewer collection and wastewater treatment service to the unincorporated areas around the lake.

“But during their formation, they also inherited a small water utility that provides water service to around 200 customers. There are two primary subdivisions down there, one known as Fascination Place and the other is Enchanted Hills,” McLeod said.

The water utility has aged and is experiencing some issues. Jones & Henry Engineers performed a preliminary engineering report on it.

Jeff Hersha, principal with Jones & Henry Engineers, said they did a preliminary report on it in 2024, which was a revision of a report they had completed about a decade ago. He said the commissioners sponsored the district pursuing planning grant money back in 2012-13, “and that’s really when this challenge kind of began.”

When they looked at the utility again, not much had changed. He said TCRSD did their best in maintaining and keeping operations going in providing safe drinking water.

“At this point, they have major replacements needed in the distribution system. They have improvements needed in the treatment plant. A water tower for finished water storage is an important component of it, as well as emergency standby generation of some of the secondary components,” Hersha said. “All in all, we have identified approximately $11 million worth of improvements that need to be made. At this point, the district is looking at replacement of the primary distribution system within the Fascination Place area. That, as Shannon mentioned, was a private utility inherited – I believe it originated in the ’60s – but the district has been responsible for it since probably in the mid ’80s.”

He said it has good pipe, but it is far beyond its design limits.

“So the replacement of the distribution system will address all of those items,” Hersha said.

With each passing year, they are expected to have increased failures as they are 20 years past the design limit.

“So it has become a real operational challenge for the district,” he concluded.

McLeod said with that information, the TCRSD approached the Indiana Finance Authority SRF (State Revolving Fund) and were able to broker a deal and acquire a $4.5 million grant in order to replace the distribution system in Fascination Place.

“Unfortunately, we had $11 million worth of things, but with a utility that size and only 200 customers, there was no way that we were going to be able to borrow the remaining amount needed,” she said.

The district went through and prioritized what was immediately needed in order to keep the utility up and running. McLeod said there were a few “small, low-lying fruits” that definitely need to be addressed, such as a permanent backup generator, the drilling of a new supply well and new water meters.

“So what we would like to do is, we are looking at a project that is around a $700,000 project, of which we’d like to go to the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) for a $560,000 grant. That may go up or down just a little bit because we’re still trying to finalize a couple numbers, but we’re looking at that $560-$600,000 mark,” McLeod stated. “They, in turn, would be supplying the entire local match. They’re not asking you for any money. They, in turn, would be supplying that match.”

The sewer district cannot apply for the OCRA grant on their own behalf. Only a city, town or county government can apply, and then the district would be the subrecipient of the grant. Under OCRA’s regulations, McLeod explained, a county government can have up to three open grants at any one time and apply for a fourth as long as the other three are under construction. At this time, after checking with OCRA, Kosciusko County does not have any open OCRA grants.

“Our project, we would be going in this next round, which is a two-phase process,” said McLeod. “The proposal would be due on Oct. 24, followed with a full application come Dec. 19. Today, what we’re really needing is just permission – your willingness to sponsor, to say yes we’ll at least throw your hat in the ring because the proposal is kind of a rough draft.”

As everything comes together, then in turn they would apply for the grant in December. That’s when the county will have to look through the full application, make sure everything is sound and then approve an agreement between the county and state and the subrecipient agreement between the county and the TCRSD.

McLeod said the things that they would need immediately to get the ball rolling would be for the commissioners to say yes to sponsoring TCRSD’s grant application. A public hearing would have to be held, with at least one of the three commissioners in attendance. An income survey also will have to be conducted, and in turn OCRA requires a letter be first submitted by the county and McLeod said she would draft that for the county. The letter requests that the income survey be performed to make sure that the sewer district qualifies for the grant. She said an environmental study also will need done, which also requires a letter stating McLeod is acting on the county’s and Turkey Creek’s behalf to send out the 10-15 letters to the required federal agencies to comment on that.

The full grant application would be reviewed by McLeod with the county before another public hearing was held, and then the county would make its final decision on helping with the grant application.

 “Once the grant is awarded, we feel like we’re going to be pretty close, very close, in quickly turning this around because, given the fact we have the $4.5 million already, we’ve initiated the completion of … specifications, so we hope that if we get good news in February, when the grant is awarded, first we’ll be bidding out the SRF-funded project, but then shortly thereafter – I’m talking probably 30 to 60 days – we’d be bidding out this project,” McLeod said. “Because the scope of this project is fairly small, we anticipate that … we’ll be under construction by mid-summer to early fall, about this time next year, so that will, in turn, allow you to pursue another application.”

County Commissioner Cary Groninger said the county wanted to promote healthy drinking water and there’s a lot of residents up there that the county is serving. He had some concern about it impeding the county’s ability to apply for some other OCRA grants, but he was glad to hear the TCRSD’s project was a short-term one.

Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell said, “I think it’s great. I think it’s wonderful that the money is going to be available there, so I would make the motion that we endorse them moving forward and then we would support your activities.”

Commissioner Bob Conley seconded the motion but asked if her motion included the letters they requested, and Mitchell said it did. McLeod said she’d send copies of the letters to Groninger, County Attorney Ed Ormsby and Auditor Alyssa Schmucker. The motion passed 3-0.