Moser plans to connect to sewer

Expanding a city’s limits is difficult.

Portland Mayor John Boggs said letting someone tap into the city’s sewer system outside of city limits is the first step for expansion.

That was his justification to preliminary vote at Portland’s Board of Works meeting Thursday to allow Rob Moser to build a line connecting a property he is building near his house at 2108 S. Boundary Pike, rural Portland, to the city’s sewers.

If he agrees to a yet-to-be drafted contract, Moser will have to build and pay for a line connecting his yet-to-be built property to the city’s line, something that’s cheaper than building and connecting it to a new septic system, wastewater supervisor Brad Clayton said.

Moser is looking to connect to a new sewer line that has been built along Boundary Pike to provide sewage service to another house in that area.

Board member Steve McIntosh, who voted with Boggs to preliminary approve the deal pending a contract, saw it as win-win for the city, which will profit off of Moser paying for sewage without having to pay to extend to his property. However, he wanted to make sure there was a provision in the contract that prevented Moser, who would technically own the line, from hooking other properties up without approval from the city.

Clayton said he’ll make sure that language is in the contract, though he said it’s unlikely anybody else would connect to it and, if it did happen, it would be “a while” before it could happen.

Portland fire chief Mike Weitzel also told the board that he is working on shifting money that is usually paid out to his employees on duty for Jay County Fair’s demolition derby, which ran for the 50th time last year, to instead be used for training.

His crew will still be on site this summer making sure no fires caused by cars smacking into each other get out of hand but that they’ll be there as volunteers.

The board preliminary approved the move, which still has to be solidified with the Jay County Fair.

In other business, board members Boggs and McIntosh, absent Jerry Leonhard, renewed a $25,000 contract with Baker Tilly Municipal Advisors to draft a five-year financial plan for Portland, something it has done for the city for decades, clerk-treasurer Lori Phillips said.