GREENFIELD — City and county officials are working to pinpoint a location and price to extend water and sewer utilities to the proposed site of a new Hancock County Jail east of Greenfield.
Hancock County will most likely partner with Greenfield Utilities for water and sewer services, said John Jessup, president of the board of commissioners. But before a final decision can be reached, city and county attorneys are fine-tuning a memorandum of understanding between the two governments.
Over the past few months, Hancock County officials have been discussing whether to hook up to Greenfield Utilities’ water and sanitary sewer system or build a sanitary sewer package plant and water treatment plant at the jail site, located along U.S. 40 between County Roads 400E and 500E.
The county has proposed building a 440-bed jail at a cost up to $43 million.
Jessup said the pending agreement with Greenfield Utilities will address the cost of utility fees and also the location to which the city will extend water mains and sanitary sewers along U.S. 40. The county will need to pay an availability fee and connection fee for the utility extension, which depends on the size of the water meter size and the property’s acreage, said Mike Fruth, director of Greenfield Utilities.
According to estimates presented to the county’s jail committee in January by RQAW, the Indianapolis firm the county hired to design the jail, building a sewer package plant and water plant could cost $3 million more than hooking up to Greenfield Utilities’ existing system.
Fruth said the city intends to pay for the design and construction of water and sewer extensions from existing connection points near Jaycie Phelps Road to the anticipated location of a nearly mile-long road that will get built from U.S. 40 to the proposed 20-acre jail site in the northwest corner of the county-owned farmland. The county owns 146 acres of land on the north and south sides of the highway.
The Greenfield Board of Works and Public Safety in early May approved a $26,000 contract with Indianapolis-based Cleland Environmental Engineering Inc. to design 1,700 feet of 12-inch water mains along the north side of U.S. 40 and a 2,170-foot 8-inch sewer line on the south side of the highway.
Fruth said it’s typical for Greenfield Utilities to extend water lines and sewers to the edge of an owner’s property. If the county wants the city to run the utilities up to the jail site, Fruth said, the county will bear the cost. The utility department pays for projects with utility user fees, not property taxes, Fruth added.
Jessup said he and the county’s two other commissioners, Marc Huber and Brad Armstrong, were initially under the impression from past discussions with Greenfield officials that the city would pay for the design and construction of the utilities within 50 feet of the building, not to the edge of the property.
“We felt like they should go all the way to our building, to our connection point,” Jessup said.
Now, the city and county will need to decide on an amicable understanding in the coming weeks so the county can push the project forward. The county could bid out the project in the fall, Jessup said.
The Hancock County Council last week held a public hearing about raising local income taxes — money collected through paychecks — by 0.2 percentage points for the next 22 years to fund most of the jail project. The council plans to use 0.17 percentage points of the tax increase for construction costs and use the remaining 0.03 percentage points for operation expenses, such hiring additional jailers.
The tax increase — a shift in the county’s rate from 1.74% to 1.94% — would go into effect in October.
Councilman Jim Shelby said since the 0.17 percentage points won’t cover all construction costs, the county plans to issue a $5 million general obligation bond, which is funded through property taxes, to pay for the jail’s infrastructure costs, such as utilities, road construction as well as renovations to the Hancock County Courthouse, Hancock County Annex and the Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office.
The commissioners have yet to finalize how much those building renovations could cost.
The council plans to vote on the tax hike July 10.
