The New Palestine council approved funds to move forward with the expansion of its wastewater treatment plant. Preliminary engineering report costs have been submitted and approved. The council plans to start the designs in 2023 and get it finalized ASAP. The council approved $915,000 for the preliminary designs with design costs estimated at $2.8 million for the $26 million estimated project. Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023.
NEW PALESTINE — An expansion of the New Palestine wastewater treatment plant is moving forward after funding for the design was recently approved. Town officials voted in late December to approve nearly $1 million for a preliminary engineering design plan for the expansion.
Officials from Commonwealth Engineering INC., spoke to town officials in late December during the final council meeting of the year and asked the town for nearly $1 million to get the preliminary design plans together for the estimated $26 million, multi-phase wastewater expansion.
Town officials say they don’t believe the new expansion will equate to a major rate increase for customers and are currently working to make sure any increase in fees is minimal, council president Bill Niemier said.
The State Revolving Loan Fund group has accepted the town’s preliminary engineering report indicating a need for the expansion, Commonwealth officials said. It means funding for the project is available. State and town officials have set a closing date in March to ensure the project continues to move forward.
The town’s council approved exactly $915,223 for Commonwealth to create the preliminary design for the expansion. The total cost for the full design surrounding the project is estimated around $2.8 million.
“We’re pretty much in a place where we have to move forward,” Niemier said.
The design funding measure passed 4-0 with all council members voting in favor of the project. Niemier, Clint Bledsoe, Brandee Bastin and Chris Lytle all said “yes” while council member Angie Fahrnow was absent from the meeting and did not cast a vote.
In 2019, the town spent $4.2 million to expand its sewer plant, raising customers’ rates to pay for it. At the time, leaders said the expansion would accommodate growth for years. However, due to growth and flow levels in the area, the facility is already operating near capacity, and town leaders say another expansion is a must.
The wastewater plant can currently handle as much as 400,000 gallons a day, an increase of 170,000 gallons with the expansion in 2019, but future growth in the area is expected to push the wastewater facility to the brink in the not too distant future, town manager Jim Robinson said.
“With this new expansion, we should be able to go up to 1.5 million gallons per day,” Robinson said. “This is something we have to do to be in compliance with the state.”
Customers currently pay $67 a month, which was an increase of over $18 when the most recent expansion was needed. Robinson feels past officials should have been making small increases to cover costs through the years rather than hitting people all at once with a major increase. He said town officials don’t want that to happen again.
As far as the official rate increase for customers, that remains to be determined pending the final expansion plans which could take up to a year to complete. However, town officials are on record saying they plan to use any COVID relief money — a total of $577,571 which is available to the town — for storm and wastewater needs.
“That’s still the hope,” Niemier said. “We want a minimal increase in sewer rates and, if we couple that with growth, we could have stable or possibly even reduced sewer rates in the future.”
Niemier said that Commonwealth officials have a history of working with towns to find grant monies to make sure any rate increase for customers is minor.
“They’re bringing a lot to the table to help us keep the cost down plus the state has a cost level maximum (estimated at $80) that we can not go above,” Niemier said. “Once you get above that level, you’re available for state funding.”
Niemier and Robinson both noted new development of homes on Bittner Road and north of the town are using the New Palestine North treatment facility, which the town bought from Cumberland a few years ago. That has helped meet the wastewater demand.
“That’s been a great investment,” Niemier said.
Robinson said they’d like to eventually get all those homes onto their main system, something they can’t do now because of capacity issues.
The development of new homes, including things like the pending approval of a multi-million apartment complex, will affect sewer rates in the future town, officials said.
“If we continue to have strong growth in our area, the rates will not go up because all the new hookups. New customers can help pay for the expansion which is why we are encouraging the growth,” Robinson said.
