Board gives OK to contract

Portland’s Board of Works preemptively approved what it hopes to be its final wetland mitigation contract with CHA.

The $56,600 contract, which runs through 2022, was not fully approved because the board would like the Portland Economic Development Corporation to sign off on it at its next meeting.

CHA was first contracted in 2009 to help recover and mitigate the wetland damaged by the former XPLEX Extreme Competition Park. CHA senior scientist Simon Davies said they were able to recover 85% of the wetlands damaged. The remaining 15% has to be mitigated.

Mitigation is the process of replacing damaged land. In Portland’s case, every acre of wetland that was unrecoverable has to replaced at a four-to-one ratio, meaning for every acre destroyed the city is responsible for creating four new wetland acres.

The ratio is a requirement by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The United States Army Corps of Engineers is inspecting the mitigated area on an annual basis to make sure all requirements are being met.

“I’ve been pretty proud of the fact that we’ve been able to work together as well as we have over the years to work with the agencies and get them to understand the circumstances,” said Davies.

The process was complicated by the city accidentally selling land that was to be used to meet the state’s mitigation requirements to Fort Recovery Industries for its expansion. That required the city to mitigate an additional four acres of wetland.

“It turned out really great because Fort Recovery Industries has been a tremendous asset for us,” said mayor Randy Geesaman. “They continue to expand. ... we’ve actually made something bad into something positive.”

Davies said the new contract, which was unanimously approved by the board, will save the city some money because the company has been operating off the terms of a previous contract and its rates have since decreased.

In other business, board members Geesaman, Bill Gibson and Jerry Leonhard approved of gasoline, oil, grease and antifreeze purchases from G&G Oil Company, Portland Motor Parts, Harvest Land and AgBest.