JEFFERSONVILLE —
Bids have been opened on a project aimed at replacing a sewer pump station near Mill Creek. That project came in at about $250,000, or about $100,000 more than budget.
An interceptor pipe at Hamburg Pike has been rehabilitated. That project ended up costing about $700,00 — or $500,000 less than initially anticipated — and the extra money was put toward a combined sewer overflow fix on Walnut Street.
All the above were among items discussed during a meeting of the Jeffersonville City Council on Friday afternoon. The meeting was called to give members an update on various sewer projects that are taking place around the city.
Those projects are being funded by the 200 percent sewer rate increase that Jeffersonville residents became subject to earlier this year. Just more than 100 percent of that increase has taken effect. The rest will be phased in by 2015. The average bill will go from about $24 to about $73.
Council President Nathan Samuel said he called the meeting because he was routinely getting questions about what the increases are paying for and wanted to be better informed and updated on the projects.
The vote to increase sewer rates came late last year, just as months of negotiations with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — related to problems with sewer overflows — were wrapping up. As a part of those negotiations, the city agreed to undertake a number of sewer improvements aimed at fixing the problems.
Sewer Director Len Ashack laid out a list of sewer projects on which the federal government had stipulated penalties for noncompliance.
For instance, the city will be penalized if it fails to implement a long-term plan for controlling stormwater, if it has dry weather combined sewer overflows or fails to install a manhole at Walnut and Riverside Drive — where an overflow has taken place.
“Back in December [when the rate increase was passed] we didn’t know as much about the collection system as we do now,” Ashack said. “If we didn’t do these things, there were stipulated penalties associated with it.”
Council members brought questions with them to the meeting. Samuel asked if sewers were being installed in newly annexed areas yet.
They are. And Ashack noted that a number of projects are expected to start in July and August, including Woodland Court, King Road, Shungate Road and Maplehust.
And Ashack also showed council members a number of deficiencies that inspections of the sewer system have found — misaligned pipes, debris, even gas and electric lines shooting through sewer lines.
He showed the members an example of a so-called “hammer tap,” where someone had taken a hammer, broken the pipe and haphazardly shoved the lateral line from their home into the hammered hole.
“As we find these kinds of deficiencies, we fix them or put them on a list to be fixed. We’re trying to solve problems before they become real problems,” Ashack said.
Councilman Mike Smith, musing about whether the misaligned pipes were due to settling dirt or shabby work, asked, “Should we be more aggressive with inspections. Because after they cover it up, we don’t know.”
“Absolutely,” responded Ashack. “We’ve got to get serious if we’re going to avoid some of these problems.”
After the meeting, Samuel said he found the session to be very informative.
“It helped us see the issues that we have with our sewers across the city,” he said. “I think we’re right on track. A lot of this should have been done years ago.”
Generally, Samuel said, people are unhappy about the sewer increase.
“People are very upset. Our economy is bad. People are hurting. This is just one of those added burdens.”
However, he said, once it’s explained to them that the increases are the result of EPA negotiations — where the city was given the option to either fix it or be fined — everyone agrees that problems need to be fixed.
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