SUMMARY OF ENVIROLINK’S PURSUIT OF DCRSD SALE
Dearborn County awarded a total of $8,114,737.49 of federal ARPA money to finance DCRSD building a sewer treatment plant in Guilford ( $5,576,448.79) and to get the Lake Dildear project ( $2.538,288.72) lines in place and treatment through Dillsboro’s sewer plant. That construction was bid out and is underway.
On May 4, 2023, there was a meeting of the DCRSD where representatives of Envirolink (called Crossroads in Indiana) expressed interest in buying the county sewer district. (See notes on this blog)
Crossroads was operating/managing the SDRSD SOUTH Dearborn regional Sewer District in Lawrenceburg for Lawrenceburg, Greendale, Aurora, and the distillery— but not owning it.
Crossroads had purchased LMH Utilities from the Tuckers in Bright and owned and operated it. Tax records show they purchased the LMH sewer plant for $1.7million.
One of the ways to improve rates for a sewer utility is apparently to merge sewer companies. Older sewer utility rates might be lower than a newer utility applying for rates. At least that seems to be part of the reason for possibly merging DCRSD and LMH (Crossroads) according to the Envirolink/Crossroads proposal.
The High Ridge Treatment Plant in western Dearborn County is not mentioned in the proposal. That is the only other treatment plant under DCRSD.
Last year -Commissioners proposed paying for attorneys from Barnes and Thornburg (the firm also acts as lobbyists for the county) to help the DCRSD with an RFP (Request for Proposals) to see what the DCRSD sale or operation/management would cost.
Barnes and Thornburg disclosed that their firm also does work with Crossroads.
Barnes and Thornburg indicated that they would seek out both types of RFP ( buying or operating) and had companies they knew to send the RFP- in addition to advertising/publicizing it.
The RFP deadline came and went with no applicants sending a proposal.
DCRSD decided to extend the deadline and then receive one proposal- from Envirolink/Crossroads.
Board members asked other local sewer plant managers if they had been contacted or sent an RFP and were told that they hadn’t.
The proposal was opened and later discussed at the February 6, 2024 meeting of the DCRSD. (Meeting Notes on this blog. Also, see a link to the video of that meeting on this blog.)
What is puzzling is why would DCRSD even consider a sale when the offered price for the sewer district is $600,000 for $8,114,737.49 of new assets ?
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
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