County Council Hears Several Sides of the Sewer Issue

County Council Hears Several Sides of the Sewer Issue

At the 27 November 2007 Council Meeting all 7 members (Chairman Charlie Fehrman, Bill Ullrich, Maynard Barrott, Liz Morris, Dan Lansing, Dennis Kraus, and Tom Cheek) were present to clean up errors in the budget and appropriate money to finance shortfalls in some departments.

The new Chairman,Dave Enzweiler,of DCRSD (Dearborn County Regional Sewer District) turned the podium over to John Maxwell, DCRSD board member, to present a request for a letter of support to go to Lawrenceburg for a $2.3 million loan for capacity at St. Leon Sewer District. In attendance for support was Brett Fehrman, DCRSD board member, Chuck Hale, St. Leon Board member, and Frank Leone St. Leon Engineer for their Sewer District.

Maxwell said that 2 years ago he accepted their appointment (Council appointed him to replace Greg Volmer). He said the TIF in St. Leon area and in West Harrison are by St. Leon’s District and that St. Leon didn’t plan to expand their system. If all the people who were supposed to be hooked up to their system were hooked up they would be at capacity. Now they are at 70% capacity. [NOTE: Maybe I’m missing something here. If they have 30% left and they are trying to force hook-ups so those tap fees pay for that, why not use that capacity for the development that the county sees bringing in and let IT pay for the 30% and abandon the lawsuits? All this legal wrangling has to be expensive.] He said we would be getting 45% of the expansion for the $2.3 million. With the agreement, we can extend lines and that extension will be driven by development. We see the lines being funded by development and TIFs.

They talked to Mayor Cunningham to see about the loan and Lawrenceburg wants unity. Sewers have been a political hot potato. Cunningham wants to see a letter of support from the county. [NOTE: Why Council and not Commissioners?]

Maxwell said they are also going to focus on West Aurora.

Enzweiler said that in the past we were talking about another plant outside Aurora. Now we want to take the sewage to Aurora and he said he was trying to get a meeting set up with IDEM to see about getting High Ridge fixed.

Kraus asked- what about the money we appropriated for the engineering study on a plant for High Ridge. If you go to Aurora, this was wasted.

Enzweiler said that SOME of it had been spent, but they are holding on to the rest until we settle with Aurora. He said their goal is to concentrate on these 2 projects and nail down details before we come in here. Our engineer looked at St. Leon’s new technology and things look solid there.

Ullrich said Tom (Cheek) and I are paying more for our sewers now as Aurora is fixing Phase 1. Brett Fehrman said the Cochran Plant is 65% complete in Aurora.
Cheek said he talked to Randy Turner (Aurora Utility Director) about the burned down house on Huseman Road. Cheeks mother lives on that road and they are all on an old failed system. Doug Baer won’t let the people rebuild so now they have to move and buy more land. He said that Baer showed up with people from the state and condemned it. Cheek said that if they won’t let these people live there then they need to condemn High Ridge and all these others. Cheek asked if Aurora could take this.
Enzweiler said that we don’t need any more package plants out there messing things up. He said Thompson had given them a name (Patty Yount) to see about getting a plant there that could them be converted to a lift station for when the sewers are available to go to Aurora.

Maxwell said he went on the DCRSD board to get things done and they are here to get a letter of support. They need a $2.3 million loan from Lawrenceburg and a letter of support from Council for this. The idea is to position ourselves for jobs and tax base. He said he’s NOT saying there won’t be residential development too. They are hoping to get DCRSD, SDRSD, and St. Leon to go to IDEM together to get this accomplished.

The 2 men from St. Leon Sewers (Hale and Leone) were supportive and said that there were negotiated agreements sent out to the people being sued to hook-up and they expected this was pretty much settled. They said things were working out with those people.

Ullrich said it was a matter of being fair – grandfathering people on fixed incomes and noted that some people don’t NEED the sewer and shouldn’t have to be hooked on. Plus they don’t VOTE in St. Leon.

Enzweiler passed out the letter of support for Council.

[NOTE: Thom Hammond arrived at this point.]

Cheek asked Maxwell- how we would recoup the $2.3 million.

Maxwell said that Umbaugh (INDY legal firm experienced in bonds etc) worked it out so it will come back monthly as tap fees. User rates will amortize some of it. They have not worked out who will be billing the users.

Kraus- What about the winery- he’d heard they were extending there and forcing the people in New Alsace on too. Maxwell said the winery had a different system set up.

Cheek asked why not use the money for West Aurora- that’s why you were formed.

Enzweiler- Because this one we can do now and with West Aurora, we’ve been through all the hoops and still can’t get it done yet, due to Aurora’s order from IDEM.

Kraus- St. Leon scares me a little bit.

Morris- I don’t want to see the county involved in billing and getting staff etc. She wants others to do billing for us.

Thom Hammond- I represent 70 families who have received mandatory letters of connection. I was late tonight because I was meeting with our steering committee to decide what to do next. I want to dispel any thought that there is resolution on that forced hook-up issue.

Charlie Fehrman- That’s not our issue; we are only deciding to ask for money from Lawrenceburg.

Hammond- I was here January 17, 2007 begging commissioners and council to take the people’s position. As I read the blogs etc. and people are up at arms about this. We need to change the laws to fix this. Our group came up with a 7-point plan to expose what goes on in Dearborn County. Hammond went on to detail all the costs associated with a forced hook-up. He added that he had heard Maxwell say they will pay the loan back with tap fees. These are $4100 vs. the $400 like he paid.

Maxwell said- I’m not paying anything- I’m on a septic tank.

Charlie Fehrman tried several times to get back to the letter of support throughout this discussion.

Hammond told Council- that they would be grouped with St. Leon who is doing this to YOUR citizens. Why can’t the county back us- we have to dig into our pockets for 2 ½ years to defend ourselves. Let the legal system resolve this before you put your necks on the line. No one considers us- yet we LIVE and VOTE in Dearborn County. Light will be shed on this county from the state and we’ve talked to the Institute of Justice.

Fehrman- I appreciate your passion- but this is not our issue.

Fehrman asked for a motion for a letter of support. There was a long period of silence, as Council seemed to be absorbing the entire presentation.

Morris motioned and Barrott 2nd – Morris stating that people are primed for jobs and business and it was time to move forward. The vote was 2 Ayes (Morris and Barrott and 4 Nays (Kraus, Ullrich, Cheek, and Lansing). Motion failed.

Thompson addressed Council at this point and informed them that commissioners at a meeting were in favor of a no forced hook-up letter in the county- not municipalities. He also said that DCRSD had engendered animosity by their own behavior. If they want to get capacity for economic development then the $2.3 million should be earmarked for capacity for that only.

Enzweiler was quite upset at this point and accused Thompson of pointing fingers at them and stated that the county couldn’t get ahead- they were always going to be behind the times with this attitude. He said he was done- that they wouldn’t be seeing them again.

At the end of the meeting, Charlie Fehrman asked the 4 Nay votes to explain themselves. Reasons cited included the unfairness of forced hook-ups just because a line goes past the property, that relatives were among those sued by St. Leon, that they didn’t want to give money to cause this for our citizens, that West Aurora was to be fixed first and it keeps being pushed back. They said the DCRSD was to FIX problems and now they are buying capacity to expand in an area beyond that without fixing the problems first.

Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township