Chuck Simpson, left, is shown welcoming the Tippecanoe and Chapman Regional Sewer District’s newest board member, Neil Meyer, right. Photo by Ian Brown.

By Ian Brown
InkFreeNews

NORTH WEBSTER — At the Tippecanoe and Chapman Lakes Sewer District meeting Monday, April 10, Neil Meyer was welcomed as the new board member for the district.

Meyer was appointed by Chris Francis, Tippecanoe Township Trustee, to replace Jon Tyler, who resigned in February.

The board discussed various financial matters and addressed the issue of delinquent customer accounts.

Board member Chuck Simpson highlighted that there are approximately 130 customers who have not paid anything on their accounts since December. A letter sent out Wednesday kindly reminds those customers there are no overdue payments or penalties yet, but they may be subject to penalties in the future.

In addition, it was mentioned that Gemini, the billing service provider, has set up an online payment option, with over 100 people already signed up for the service.

In the last month, progress has been made on unsigned easements, with the number of unsigned easements reduced to 58 at Tippecanoe Lake and 34 at Chapman Lake. Improvement is likely due to the “last chance” letter sent to property owners, resulting in increased communication and engagement.

To save costs and increase efficiency, a letter was sent to customers with shared drainages, informing them grinder stations would be placed as close to the property line as possible. The goal is to minimize future costs and disputes between property owners.

Tony Croy, a property owner on 300 East, Syracuse, expressed his frustration about a main line running directly in front of his house and through his property. Croy and his neighbors were not informed about the sewer project since they were across the street and not included in the district. Croy now wants to opt into the program and is willing to pay the $15,000-$20,000 hookup charge to be included.

Henschen explained the process to Croy, stating that the first step is to approach the board and express interest. If the board deems it feasible, Croy would then need to go back to the commissioners and request to join the district. Once the application is accepted, and if the property is within 300 feet of the line, Croy would be responsible for the hookup charge.

A change order, which included fewer customer-driven changes but still resulted in additional costs, was presented. The main cost drivers were the installation of two new grinder stations on a property, amounting to around $27,000. Installation of a 6-inch high-pressure gas line on Armstrong Street added another $9,000.

“That’s the depth we read our pressure sewer, we couldn’t go above it because that gets us into potential freezing conditions. We want to stay in 5 foot depth so as a result we had to drill under and when we drill down and come back up we create some high points in your pipe and we can’t have high points in our forest. Or else it’ll be a place where air gets trapped in the line and actually can block a sewer line. So we had to make it deeper,” said Henschen.

Attorney Andrew Boxberger addressed the difficulties in meeting deadlines for posting public notices in newspapers twice before meetings, as required by statute. He suggested that the board pass a resolution allowing the second publication to be online, which would streamline the process and make it easier to meet deadlines and give the public easier access to updated information.

If the board agrees, a designated person would need to sign the proof of publication, with Jennifer Ransbottom or someone from JPR potentially filling that role. The board seemed open to the idea, and Boxberger suggested bringing the resolution to the next meeting for adoption.

A decision was made to purchase an annual subscription of Boardly, a board planning application, for each board member, which will save Ransbottom hours of paperwork and contribute to a reduction in paper usage. Each member will bring their own laptop to meetings to use the software, making the board’s operations more efficient and environmentally friendly.