Council creates committee

A committee will be formed in an effort to find a way to provide some financial relief for the members of Jay County Regional Sewer District.

Jay County Council voted during a joint session with commissioners Wednesday to form the committee after residents in the district recently appealed a rate increase that had been approved by its board.

The committee, to include two council members, one commissioner and two members of the regional sewer district board, will be tasked with looking for a way to ease the financial burden on sewer district residents.

“I hope we can come up with a solution,” said council president Jeanne Houchins. “I think we can.”

The sewer district on Feb. 5 approved the increases, the first of which is to go into effect May 1, following rate hikes by the cities of Portland and Dunkirk. Wastewater from the district, which is made up of 74 customers in the areas of the Foxfire Addition southwest of Portland and the Skeens Addition and Willow Drive near Dunkirk, is handled by the respective city systems.

The result would be that sewer district members in the Dunkirk area would have a rate of $88 per month — $55.29 in user fees to the city, $27.21 in debt service to cover the installation of the sewer system and a $5.50 billing fee. That total would go up to $101.85 on Jan. 1.

For Portland-area users, the rate would be $80.50 as of May 1 — $47.79 in user fees, $27.21 in debt services and a $5.50 billing fee. Those numbers would rise to $84.30 on Jan. 1, $88.45 in 2020 and $92.90 in 2021.

The current rate for all regional sewer district members is $76.75.

District members appealed the rate increase, leaving the decision to county council as to whether the hikes should stay in place.

But the simple fact that the rates are high would not qualify as a reason to overturn the increase, attorney Meeks Cockerill, who is representing the county on the issue, told council Wednesday. Rather, council would have to cite a reason that the rates are not “just and equitable.” Cockerill added that finding such grounds seems unlikely.

A potential path forward that was discussed Wednesday would involve the county paying off or taking over payments on the bond — there is about $560,000 left on the 30-year loan — for the installation of the sewer system. Doing so would save each of the 74 users $27.21 per month.

The county has already helped out the financially struggling sewer district twice in the form of a $25,000 loan in 2013 and a $25,000 grant in 2015. (The loan is expected to be forgiven, essentially making it a grant as well.)

Cockerill said potential sources of funding to help the sewer district would include economic development income tax dollars, the county’s rainy day and infrastructure funds, and economic development money from the Bluff Point Wind Energy Center project.

Even with the formation of the committee, the rate increases will still go into effect May 1 unless the sewer district passes an ordinance to rescind or delay them. (The district board is scheduled to meet Monday.)

And in order to delay the increase, the county would need to provide some sort of financial assistance to allow the sewer district to pay its bills in the interim.

The district has been a point of contention from the start, as it was mandated in 2004 by Indiana Department of Environmental Management after a problem with a septic system in the Foxfire Addition southwest of Portland led to raw sewage flowing into a nearby creek.