River Ridge moves forward on water wells, master plan updates

The River Ridge Development Authority’s Board of Directors is continuing to move forward with plans for water improvements along Longview Beach and time is of the essence.

“It’s all supposed to be completed by October of this year,” said Jerry Acy, executive director of River Ridge. “The entire project, which is three contracts.”

The project that carries a $4.5 million price tag and is being constructed by Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources includes constructing three new water wells along Longview Beach, a new water main to run along Waterline Road and a water tank near Ind. 62 on Waterline Road.

No official vote was taken at the board’s Tuesday meeting, but approval of the conceptual plan, as previously presented by DNR Deputy Director John Davis, was unanimously agreed upon to move forward. Board member Ned Pfau was not in attendance.

The hefty cost of the project is being paid for through a State Revolving Fund Loan program for water system improvements. The work consists of installing 18,000 feet of new water main; a 3,000-gallon-per-minute booster station; a 750,000-gallon groundwater tank; a new 2-million-gallon-per-day iron and manganese removal water treatment plant; and three 700-gallon-per-minute tubular groundwater wells and is expected to begin in March.

While the current plan is limited to the aforementioned construction, potential expansion could include adding another seven wells extending toward Longview Beach subdivision, as previously reported in The Evening News.

There are existing wells along the site that were built when the ammunition plan was originally constructed, but they will not be used as part of the new project.

“There are existing [wells] that are no longer going to be used,” said Marc Hildenbrand, project engineer for River Ridge. “The price to refurb or repair is more than just doing new wells because they are so old.”

All of the construction will be undertaken by DNR.

MASTER PLAN UPDATE

Approval of an amendment to River Ridge’s master plan contract with Waggoner Engineering Inc., was also granted at the meeting.

The master plan is in its final phase of development, but still only includes defining the land that is to be developed and is not yet in the designing phase.

Road, land, zoning plans and parcel layout will be defined further and the major elements of work will encompass 100 percent of the properties owned by River Ridge, said Tracy Huffman, director of Waggoner Engineering.

Along with planning inside of River Ridge, major infrastructure improvements around the complex will affect its future plans.

“Many things that are great horizontal potential assets that are still out there that have to be contended with,” Huffman said.

One of the horizontal assets is the possible Interstate 265 approach to an east-end bridge, which is part of the proposed Ohio River Bridges Project.

“We will have to plan as if it’s going to be there,” Huffman said of the possible bridge and approach. “We’ll also have to plan for it not being there. It does impact several aspects of the site.”

The amendment approved is worth $112,000.

RIVER RIDGE AUDIT

A preliminary audit for River Ridge was also presented at Tuesday’s meeting.

The review is preliminary and will still need a management discussion and analysis, which encompasses why changes in the expectations have occurred, before it is finalized.

It is expected that a final review will be presented at the board’s next meeting.

River Ridge, according to the report, has lost money over the year.

Acy would not comment on the numbers presented during the meeting because it is only a preliminary report.

Net assets were down from $9.6 million last $8.8 million this year, largely due to depreciation values and cash being reduced from $3.2 million to just more than $2 million.

Other unexpected costs that hit River Ridge in the past year were adding security features, guards and changing security fencing; additional property acquired from the United States Army; funding traffic light construction at River Ridge Circle and Ind. 62 and Salem-Noble Road and Ind. 62; and lack of revenues from property rental and sale.

“We had anticipated we may sell 40 acres last year and we didn’t sell 40 acres,” Acy said. “It’s just because of the industrial economic activity and the downturn in the economy.”

But Acy remained optimistic River Ridge will be able to control expenses and increase revenues into next year.

“I’m optimistic that we’ll end up in a lot better fiscal shape next year than we did this year,” he said. “I’m not only optimistic, I’m confident we will.”

In other business

• An update on the installation of the traffic signal at Ind. 62 and Salem-Noble Road was provided as the project is on track and will likely have all preliminary drawings submitted to the state by the end of the month.

• The sale of the NuYale property at River Ridge Commerce Center with Maloney Realty is expected to close in the next day or two.

NuYale would not relocate its operations there, but does plan to upgrade the property, including reconstructing the facade to create a greater continuity with the other buildings in River Ridge.

• The board of directors unanimously approved two, six-month contract extensions for leases with IOW and Orica.

The extension of the new leases will take the contract out to June 2013.

NEW BOARD MEMBER APPOINTED

Kim Matthews, a retired certified public accountant, has been named as the newest member of River Ridge Development Authority’s Board of Directors.

Matthews was appointed by the Utica Town Board to replace Tim McDonald, who recently resigned due to time conflicts while he is preparing his doctoral thesis.

Matthews, a certified public accountant in both Kentucky and Indiana started his career with Ernst and Ernst in both audit and tax areas.

In 1980, he joined BATUS, the former parent company of Brown and Williamson, where he was the manager of federal and international taxation, according to a press release.

Later, Matthews became the group operations controller and director of taxes for the Scott Fetzer Group and rejoined Brown and Williamson in the mid-1990s before retiring.

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