North Judson Council Discusses Financing Options for Water, Wastewater Upgrades

Posted on July 3, 2017
Author Michael Gallenberger, WKVI

The North Judson Town Council has taken the first step toward upgrading the town’s wastewater infrastructure.

The first priority is to improve its combined sewer overflow, to bring the system into compliance with Indiana Department of Environmental Management regulations. Town officials also want to modernize the wastewater treatment plant. The projected cost for all those upgrades is $3.1 million.

Accounting firm Umbaugh and Associates believes the town can make those improvements without any more rate increases, beyond those set to take effect next month. During a special town council meeting last week, Clerk-Treasurer Alicia Collins recommended that the town make all the upgrades at once. “Typically, we are behind the ball on most things, so I think we need to look at the future,” she said. “If it’s not going to cost us any more money to do this, we may need to maximize what we can do, and the interest rates are only going to be this low for a certain amount of time.”

To make the upgrades, the town council voted to pursue a 40-year bond through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Office. However, that financing plan depends on whether Rural Development will let the town refinance its outstanding sewer bond as part of the process.

Council members also voted to hire Bose McKinney & Evans as the bond counsel for the project, at the recommendation of Town Attorney Justin Schramm. Construction is estimated to begin in 2019.

Meanwhile, the town council is also considering various improvements to the town’s water infrastructure, such as rehabilitating the two water towers, adding a well, and upgrading the existing well pumps. To cover the cost, council members plan to pursue a grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs. However, they decided not to make any decisions yet on the water projects, until they can get some more detailed cost estimates from Commonwealth Engineers.

They plan to continue the discussion during their regular meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m. at North Judson Town Hall.