The Brown County Regional Sewer District Board has been promised the startup money it needs to start extending sewers to residents, businesses and vacant land in the Bean Blossom area.
Tonight (June 19) at 6 in the County Office Building, it will conduct a public hearing about the project that various board members have been working on since the early 2000s.
About 275 customers would be served with this project, along State Road 135 North and its offshoots in the Bean Blossom area, the Bean Blossom Trailer Court, Old Settlers Road, Bittersweet Road, Little Fox Lake, Woodland Lake, Covered Bridge Road and Freeman Ridge Road, as well as parts of State Road 45 and Gatesville Road.
Board members estimate that it will take about three years for a new wastewater plant to be built.
The plan is for the sewer board to apply for a combination of low-interest loans and grants from state and federal sources to pay for it. It’s estimated to cost $7.355 million.
Sewer customers in that service area would pay a monthly sewer bill. The board hopes that it can be kept within the $65 to $85 range, but they won’t know for sure what is possible until they hear from the funding agencies.
On Monday night, the Brown County Council unanimously approved loaning $270,000 to the sewer board to get the project started, such as doing engineering work. Some of that work has already been done and those professionals need to be paid.
The $270,000 is planned to go toward engineering study and design, an environmental report, easement preparation, legal expenses, a financial adviser’s fee, soil analysis and administrative costs. All of that work is projected to cost about $479,500, but the board expects that the $270,000 will be able to tide them over until they can get more funding from state and federal agencies.
Brown County Redevelopment Commission President Jim Kemp spoke about the importance of extending sewer service to the future of Brown County. More people need to move here in order to sustain our workforce and our tax base, so that county services paid with tax dollars, like road maintenance and law enforcement, can continue, he said. The county’s population is projected to drop within the next 30 years, he said.
Steps need to be taken to increase residents’ median income. Businesses need to come in and provide jobs, and clusters of affordable homes need to be built to help people move here and stay here. That can’t reasonably be done on septic systems, he said.
Some residents spoke up about the project.
Sherrie Mitchell challenged the notion that extending sewers to an area will help spur economic development. Insurance-rated fire protection also is needed, she said.
She also asked that the council withhold the full $270,000 from the sewer board until members do an environmental study of the project area.
Tim Clark also asked for expert-backed data on why sewer service is needed, such as how many failed septic systems really exist in the project area.
Clint Studabaker, a retired civil and environmental engineer who was just appointed to the sewer board last night, said they’d be presenting data at Tuesday’s public hearing. He is the second retired scientist to join the sewer board in the past year.
He told the Brown County Redevelopment Commission last week that in terms of protecting Brown County’s environment, installing sewers is much better than allowing thousands of individual septic systems to be used indefinitely.
The council voted 7-0 to earmark $270,000 in its rainy day fund for the sewer project. All bills will go through the county auditor to provide a paper trail on how it is spent, as sewer board President Judy Swift Powdrill requested.
