Council gives district $25,000

It’s a no-win situation.
That was the consensus Jay County Council members reached Wednesday while agreeing to give Jay County Regional Sewer District $25,000 to pay for a 2014 audit and purchase a new pump.
Council also approved an additional appropriation of $1,500 for Jay Circuit Court and got an update about Jay Emergency Medical Service runs.
The sewer district recently received its bill for its 2014 audit, which covered three years of activity.
The total came in at $19,700, which district board member Ralph Frazee told council the district can’t afford to pay because it currently is barely breaking even on operation and repayment of bonds for the sewer system that serves rural residents in the Foxfire addition west of Portland and the Skeens Addition and Willow Drive area near Dunkirk.
Jay County Commissioners on Monday had recommended that the district, being represented by Frazee, ask council for the funds to cover the audit as well as purchase a back-up pump in case one is needed.
Council members Mike Leonhard, Gary Theurer, Jeanne Houchins, Cindy Newton, Mike Rockwell and Bob Vance approved the request, which will be paid out of the infrastructure fund, but expressed frustration about the situation with the sewer district.
“It’s not your fault, it’s not our fault, but we’re stuck paying the bills,” Theurer told Frazee. “We can’t ask these people out there to keep paying more and more. We’re going to drive them out of their houses. That’s what’s sad.”
The sewer district had approved a 22-percent rate increase — to $93.65 per month from the current $76.75 — in July 2013, but it did not go into effect because residents were not notified of the increase as required by state statute. The same increase was then rejected three months later.