By PAULENE POPARAD

Use it or lose it.

Faced with that prospect the Porter Redevelopment Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to loan the town Sewer Department $197,000 to purchase additional capacity at the Chesterton sewage treatment plant.

Sept. 12, 2006 the Porter Town Council voted 3-2 to approve a new 20-year treatment pact with Chesterton including the immediate $799,000 purchase of 170,000 gpd above its then 513,000 gpd limit.

Beginning this year an optional 42,000 gpd can be purchased in each of the next five years at a cost of $197,400 annually. In July, Porter used 70 percent of its current 683,000 gpd allotment at Chesterton’s plant.

Said both commission and council President Bill Sexton, “If we don’t purchase (more capacity) now, it goes away. We lose it forever and we can’t purchase it at a later date.” He said more capacity is needed because the developer of a previously approved motel at U.S. 20 and Worthington Drive has inquired about beginning the permit process; the project includes an undisclosed restaurant.

Redevelopment Commission member Al Raffin asked if new sewer users will pay Porter for future hook-ups. Sexton said yes, especially the motel because of its number of restrooms.

Porter charges both a sewer tap-on fee and a capital connection fee, the latter to help recoup its 2006 sewer-capacity purchase.

Raffin asked if the commission has the money to make the Sewer Department loan, especially since the commission has an outstanding 2007 loan to the Town Council because tax collections have been delayed. Commission treasurer Paul Childress was absent, but Sexton said the new loan is covered.

After the meeting he said the sewer loan, like the Town Council loan, will have to be repaid by Dec. 31.

The commission gets its revenue by segregating certain property taxes paid within a designated tax-increment financing (TIF) zone. The money must be spent for improvements made within the TIF district or for improvements or purchases that benefit the district.

Sexton opened the meeting by announcing the state Department of Local Government Finance notified Porter that its TIF district will be allowed to raise a total $105,158 this year compared to $157,737 in 2006. Said Raffin, “We got two-thirds of what we got last year. What if we reject it?”

Sexton said Porter has been told its assessed valuation dropped by about $25 million, and financial consultant Karl Cender has advised that nothing would be gained by appealling the DLGF order. The commission voted 3-0 to accept it with members Mike Genger also voting yes and Lorri Wickberg not yet having arrived.

In other business the commission unanimously accepted the low bid of ProForm Pipeline Co. of Mishawaka for $152,785 to reline the Beam Street sanitary sewer; the acceptance is contingent on all bid requirements having been met and town engineer Hesham Khalil making a favorable recommendation.

Insituform Technologies of Missouri, which relined the Porter Avenue sewer last year, bid $174,580. The engineer’s estimate was $180,000. To keep the project cost down after initial bids came in too high, replacing the Beam sewer laterals to individual homes was scrapped and no pavement repair is included. Khalil said if a lateral is found to be bad, the homeowner will be notified it’s their responsibility to replace it.

The commission additionally voted 4-0 to loan the Sewer Department not to exceed $50,000 to pay for metering equipment for some of the town’s 16 sewage lift stations. Porter recently entered into an agreed order with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to conclude an IDEM enforcement action regarding deficiencies in Porter’s sewage collection system and the lack of an operating permit.

Porter is in the process of a nearly $200,000 upgrade of the Oak Hill lift station pump, force main and generator, and work is needed on the Triangle and Porter Avenue lift stations as well, said Khalil. Meters need to be installed at Triangle to size a pump to eliminate overflows into a manhole. Porter Avenue, where additional meters are being installed, will require a more extensive upgrade.

IDEM has laid out timetables for Porter to meet benchmarks in making progress on its sewer upgrades. A proposed action plan needs to be submitted soon by the town. Sexton said the town faces stiff fines if it doesn’t comply with the terms of the agreed order.

Khalil said he has 95 percent of the information needed to submit it to IDEM for the operating permit and anticipates doing so next week.

Saying it benefits the TIF district, the commission voted 4-0 to pay a $11,959 repair bill at the request of town Fire Chief Lewis Craig to fix a broken pump on the Fire Department’s main pumper. Craig said he doesn’t have funds in his budget to fix it.

Later, during the Town Council meeting, Craig announced that Sea Eagle is donating an approximately $3,000 boat to the Porter fire dive team after a tie-down on its boat, purchased from Sea Eagle, broke recently on Interstate 94 and the boat and motor were dragged and damaged. The dive team was returning from aiding flooding victims in Dyer. The replacement boat will need a motor.

Posted 8/29/2007