16 March 2006 Dearborn County Sewer Board Meeting Notes

16 March 2006 Dearborn County Sewer Board Meeting Notes

Present: Brett Fehrman, Acting Chairman, Dave Enzweiler, Barry Pruss, Rodney Dennerline, and Pat Holland.
ABSENT: JOHN MAXWELL and MIKE HANKINS
Also present: Lehner, Att’y, Baer, Health Dept., Messmore, County Adm., and Quinn, Engineer
Jim West- DCEDI Director was in the audience

SPECIAL REQUEST:
Mark Stenger representing Ralph Meierjohn of Ameritech Homes and the Gabbard Property on US 50 asked the board to appoint a special committee to report back in 4 weeks regarding their proposal to install a 5 mile long sewer trunk line from the west side of the Aurora TIF district to Dillsboro. Ameritech would guarantee for 5 years the payment of the interest on the bonds for the line. He estimated the cost to be $2.5 million with a favorable 2% interest rat- yielding $50,000 in interest per year to be paid. Ameritech was prepared to offer a corporate guarantee of that payment figuring the increased tap in fees would be able to retire the debt.
He stated this would 1. help HighRidge Estates, 2. promote economic development in the TIF, and 3 alleviate the I and I in Dillsboro. [NOTE: Not to mention help Ameritech whose primary approval on the Gabbard property expires this year.]
Fehrman thought they could take the line to Aurora too.
Holland, Fehrman, and Enzweiler offered to serve on the committee. They will meet on the 27th. Baer noted that Woolpert had talked to Dillsboro already and they might want to talk to Woolpert first. Messmore agreed.

Bob Hrezo and Randy Turner were to be present for sewage disposal alternatives for Gabbard and SR148 respectively, but did not show.

[NOTE: It seems a lot of special requests come in- and DCRSD has no means to accomplish these yet. They need a PLAN and a PRIORITIZED way to approach development requests. Until Woolpert is finished it is pretty much wasted time to hear these.]

Old Business:
Tom Quinn – permits for Stewart St. and Cole Lane- the board will meet with the residents 7 PM Wed Apr 5 at the Aurora Firehouse to give them some details, though they don’t know the actual rates yet. Seems that Aurora charges a differential outside the city limits of 2.7 times the water rate for sewer. DCRSD will probably charge a $500 tap fee. [NOTE: They seem to be going into a meeting with 43 residents and no firm numbers!]Holland thought they should have some Aurora reps there. Dennerline thought they weren’t needed- we’re just going to give surface info. No easements will be needed because DCRSD will not be maintaining the pumps once installed. [NOTE: What’s with keeping these people in the dark about their rates? If Aurora is there, they will be able to answer that question.]

Brett Fehrman- service update with Aurora. Fehrman wants to go for ANOTHER variance for HighRidge Estates- about 50 homes (High Ridge plus the people between them and the line extension. Lehner said if we ask for 120 they will turn it down- so they are leaving the trailer court out of the request. Using a factor of 300 gal per day per home Quinn estimated they need about 50,000 gal. They have a 4 in line, which Dennerline says can handle a lot of sewage. Board VOTED TO petition IDEM for a variance for capacity for HighRidge plus the extra homes at about 50 total.
[NOTE: Is anyone concerned that they are adding to a violation for Aurora? Sewers are to help ELIMINATE health issues- not create more. HELP THEM FIX THE PROBLEM!]

Lehner- stated she is working on rules and regulations to set tap fees. Enzweiler said Woolpert should be getting that info. Lehner can’t do the numbers- she is crafting the framework for them. They already have a user agreement drawn up.

Brett Fehrman- update on SDRSD membership- Hankins and Fehrman met with SDRSD. Lehner talked to Feichtner. SDRSD will vote on this prior to their regular meeting. There were numbers in the $2.5-5 mil range. DCRSD Board voted to pursue the membership, but did not vote to obligate the money yet.

Legislative update from Lehner and Messmore- communications from the governor’s office regarding the RD (rural development) grant seems to be hung up somewhere and no one knows where it is. GRW helped write this a long time ago. Baer emailed and there were issues with exceeding the income requirements. After the income survey- they decided DCRSD could reapply. “At least we haven’t gotten a denial.” Lehner was encouraged that the Governor’s office called us. [NOTE: DCRSD is in denial- they need to pursue other avenues- this one obviously has the potential to fall through.]

Messmore- Woolpert update- All visits done except Moore’s Hill. Holland and Dennerline gave them some contact numbers- apparently Moore’s Hill is part time – so hard to coordinate meeting.

New Business:
Baer listed claims- Woolpert, Hankins for extra meetings, Quinn, Lehner, and VRUC (Lehner fees) All were approved to be paid.

Tax papers to be signed as required by SBOA showing salaries and per diems and employees. Also had to do state sales tax form even though they had none. Pruss was authorized to sign these.

Holland asked if DCRSD could by-pass Aurora. Quinn had talked to Turner in Aurora to go to Indy to talk t Tierney of GRW. Tierney told them capacity issues had to be discussed with Lehner, so it wasn’t worth coming to Indy. Therefore they did not meet.

Jim West- DCEDI – expressed concern for the TIF district and business requests he’s taking to Aurora. He’s told there is capacity and after listening tonight, he’s not sure that’s the case. [NOTE: Because it seems that different requests get different answers, I asked the board if they thought that maybe Aurora was not cooperating because they were waiting to see how DCRSD membership goes? They didn’t think that was an issue.]

Meeting adjourned 8:10 PM

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township