Council Member Don Miller and Claypool Town Council President Benny Stage Jr. are shown, from left. Liz Adkins’s image from InkFreeNews.
CLAYPOOL On Tuesday, June 17, the council met to discuss raising Claypool’s sewer utility’s rates.
Since Claypool will be closing on its sewer bonds in July, Tyler Coffel, a manager at Baker Tilly, went over the rate analysis with the council members. The town’s sewer project’s financial advisor is Baker Tilly.
According to Coffel, the restoration will cost $4,612,000 in total. Five distinct financing sources will be used to support it.
These sources include funding from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs, the K21 Health Foundation, and the State Revolving Fund.
Coffel suggested raising the rate by 45%, which would be implemented in three stages until the beginning of 2027. The following phases would be implemented: 15% on October 1, 2025; 13% on July 1, 2026; and 27% on January, 2027. A TIF promise is part of this rate hike.
According to Coffel, the user fee for a 4,000-gallon user will increase to $106.77 in 2027.
At the council meeting on July 15, there will be a public hearing on an ordinance that would change the town’s sewer fees.
The town’s bond counsel will be Dennis Otten, a partner in the Public Finance and Utilities Group of Bose McKinney & Evans. A bond ordinance was introduced and adopted with the approval of the town council.
Commonwealth Engineers Inc. project manager Ben Adams gave bid updates on drainage and wastewater enhancement projects. He suggested that the council accept the lowest bidders’ offers.
Don Miller, a council member, voiced concerns about expenses. The Commonwealth website lists the bid tabulation for the stormwater and wastewater enhancement projects.
“The costs of the treatment facility were definitely higher than what we expected,” Adams added. Unfortunately, we only received one bid for the storm sewer job, and I felt they put a very good number on it. However, the cleaning portion was really less than what we had estimated.
Despite accepting the lowest bids, the council claimed to have continued to believe that Commonwealth’s designs included a wastewater building. According to Adams, the structure was not in the designs and was extremely expensive. He calculated that the construction would cost an extra $700,000. Adams informed the council that they would need to hold another introduction meeting to discuss the projected sewer fees, which would increase with the building’s inclusion, if they were to include the building in their plans.
Following a resident’s inquiry in May, council continued to debate allowing chickens within municipal borders. Chickens will not be allowed inside the town borders at this time. The council brought up a recent request made to the Kosciusko County Board of Zoning Appeals by a resident of Palestine Lake. Due to concerns about bird flu, the resident’s request to retain four chickens in a residential neighborhood was turned down at that hearing.
According to the council, during the BZA meeting on June 10, they opted against passing the law that would have let households to keep hens.
Council President Benny Stage Jr. stated that the county would not grant a variance at this time and that anyone who wished to have chickens would still need to apply in person.
“We have no control over it,” Council Member Gene Warner stated. Before this happened, we were going to pass it. They will override us regardless of what we pass.
According to Stage, the county allegedly put a lid on this because all of the county’s main egg producers had been in touch with the county due to the avian flu.
At the council meeting, Kosciusko County Community Coordinator Amy Roe and HWC Engineering’s business development manager Allie Daugherty gave an update on a park concept planning grant.
According to Roe, the Dekko Foundation would pay $4,400 for the idea, and the town would need to consider contributing $1,100. When applying for grants for a park project, Claypool could use a park plan as a visual aid. They informed the council about the grant application process run by The Dekko Foundation.
Daugherty advised council to form a small group of stakeholders for a strategic plan committee and stated that the town’s strategic plan launch meeting is scheduled for July 8. Additionally, she suggested that the town appoint a minimum of ten individuals to the committee. The stage informed the audience that anyone in the neighborhood who wished to participate might do so.
Council as well:
- Approved Kosciusko REMC using right-of-ways and easements to begin boring work for the installation of Kosciusko Connect. Council told residents construction would potentially start the week of June 23.
- Approved a six-month maintenance program for the town s two lift stations in the amount of $1,590 per session.
- Heard the town s website should be live the week of June 23. The address is townofclaypool.org.
- Approved the Claypool Police Department assisting with traffic during Silver Lake Days on June 20 and 21.
The next regular meeting of the council will take place in the Claypool Lions Club building on Tuesday, July 15 at 7 p.m. At 5 p.m., there will also be a TIF meeting. June 25, Wednesday, at the town barn.
