NEW PALESTINE — Officials with New Palestine Community Schools are looking at the possibility of selling a tiny section (1 acre) of the newly acquired land (117 acres) at the intersection of County Roads West 300S and South 500W in New Palestine.
Officials with NineStar Connect, who are looking for land to build a new water tower, contacted officials with the school district to get an idea of how much it might cost to purchase enough space to install a new water tower. Officials with NineStar say they need to make sure they’re as prepared as possible be to supply water for future growth in that area.
“The area they want is the northeast corner of the land, right behind that last house there on Gem Road,” assistant superintendent Bob Yoder said. “I see no reason not to sell them the land if we can work something out because I look at it as we’re going to eventually develop that land, and we’re going to need a source of water anyways and this could benefit us down the road.”
NineStar already services many homes with water in the southern part of the county, but so does Citizens.
NineStar Connect public relations official David Spencer said they are indeed looking to build a new water tower in the southern part of the county, but exactly where they might build the water tower has yet to be determined.
Officials have also had preliminary talks the Town of New Palestine who might have a piece of land for NineStar Connect to build on near the town’s sewer plant off of CR West 300S not far from school property.
“Our discussions with New Palestine schools started a couple of weeks ago,” Spencer said. “We’re continuing to add more and more customers to our system and as a result you’ve got to stay a head in the infrastructure game. We can’t wake up one day and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a lot more customers, but we don’t have any capacity.’ You’ve got to stay a head of the capacity.”
Spencer noted officials with NineStar are trying to be proactive looking a couple of different locations in the southern part of the county to one day soon build a new water tower.
“We just want to make sure in a year or two down the road we’ve got enough capacity as all of the development that is coming in that area continues to happen and we just need to figure out the best place to put that tower,” Spencer said.
NineStar Connect has been in the water business since 2019 and their plans are to continue to develop that side of the business in the county.
“The number of our water customers that continues to grow is in that area and it’s only going to continue to grow over the next 10 years and this is a chance to continue to expand that infrastructure,” Spencer said.
Spencer noted there will be plenty of homes and businesses in the county who are going to be needing water service in the coming years, so he doesn’t believe there will be any kind of territory stake out between them and Citizens.
“They’ve got a lot of irons in the fire in other places, but I’m not sure we’re looking to mark territory so much as it is we want to make sure we can supply our needs,” Spencer said.
The tower Spencer noted would more than likely look like the one they have in the Mt. Comfort area, however he said it’s too soon to say for sure.
“A lot of times a design is based on how many gallons are need and we don’t know yet what the need is,” Spencer said.
Officials with New Palestine Community Schools purchased the nearly 115 acres of land from the Raesner Family Farm LLC, for a cost estimated at $3.33 million and then were given through a donation another another 1.714 acres of land there on the west, or backside edge looking west of the already purchased property.
The district’s school board during the last board meeting passed a resolution to allow Yoder permission to get the land he’s thinking of selling to NineStar appraised and evaluated for a possible sale.
“We’re going to get the land appraised and we will not sell it for less than that and then the two side would have to come to an agreement to see what the price would be,” Yoder said. “It’s in the works now.”
Officials from the Town of New Palestine say they’re probably not out of the running to have the water tower built on their land instead, but noted it’s probably a matter of which property best suits NineStar’s needs.
