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Residents worried about added cost of new sewage system

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 9:05pm — john
JENNIFER JAQUA
Vincennes Sun-Commercial
jjaqua@suncommercial.com

BRUCEVILLE - Work on the new sewage-treatment system here is progressing, but homeowners in attendance at the Tuesday night's town council meeting had questions about what would be expected of them as the project moved forward.

"The homeowners will have to find where their main sewer line comes out of their home," said council member Larry Cardinal. "They will be responsible for connecting their line into the main system, once the project is completed."

Council president Everett Dillon said once the project is completed, residents would have 90 days to connect, and that connection would be at their expense. He said the town was developing an ordinance that stipulateds any homeowner who doesn't connect within that time could be penalized with a fine.

"That way they are encouraged to hook into the new system in a timely manner," Dillon said.

Dillon added that homeowners will also have to pay to have their old septic tanks pumped clean and filled in.

That wasn't what Brad Bromm wanted to hear.

"We are already paying a double water bill and now we have all this added expense," he said. "What about families that have kids and are just trying to make ends meet and they can't afford this stuff? What will they do?"

Cardinal said he believes representatives with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Office in Sullivan plan to offer grants to households on low and fixed incomes.

"This was not in our control," Dillon said of the whole project. "We were forced to do this project through mandates from (the Indiana Department of Environmental Management). I worry about the people who can't afford it and that's why we spent two years getting grants and funding for the project - to try to keep water and sewer rates as low as we could."

Since 2003, council members have been working to replace the town's old septic tank system with a modernized system and wastewater treatment plant..

"By not doing this project, we were facing fines of up to $25,000 a day," Cardinal explained.

The $4.6 million project has been funded in part through grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development office and from the office or Community and Rural Affairs. Donations from the Goldie & Lillian Trabant Trust and from the Bruceville Volunteer Fire Dept. have also assisted with funding.

And the town sold $1.5 million in low-interest bonds.

In July the council approved an ordinance that set a base rate of $40.25 with a charge of $5.15 per 1,000 gallons. The average resident uses approximately 4,200 gallons of water per month for sewer use, and Clerk-Treasurer Susan Cook said the average water bill runs about $40.

Dillon said any other residents who have questions or concerns about the new sewer system are welcome to attend the next council meeting, which will be held at 6 p.m. on Oct. 7.

The new system is expected to be finished in late July of next year.

Comments

Wed, 09/03/2008 - 6:02am — Anonymous

it's just my nature

last night i watched the r.n.c. for the dumocrats thats [republican national convention].

fred thompson stole the show by only telling the truth.

if you can imagine that. someone stealing something by telling the truth.

fred was very direct with his speech,very open,very honest and very funny.he talked about how obama is lying thru his teeth and how stupid his followers are for falling for what obama says.

its hard to believe that people, even the ones who are so called educated can be taken in so easy by obama.i guess if people like his followers didn't exist then con men would out of work.

like i've said before he's not a good speaker he's a good reader of a prepared speech from a tele-prompter.

i can't wait for the debate season so i can watch him stumble over what he's saying as to what he's thinking.

most people don't know this but when someone stumbles for an answer it's because
1 they don't have an answer and
2 they are not exactly sure what you want to hear so they try to stall til they see some kind reaction from the person they are answering.

if there were subtitles on the last debate it would have looked like comic strip curse words going across the screen.

obama says most people are stupid because they don't know how to communicate with people from other countries.i'm here to tell you i can curse at you in five different languages.

personally i hate to be bi anything but i do believe cursing in five different languages makes me bilingual.and it won't look like him talking in subtitles [@@!#%%%$#@!@!] like he does without it written in front of him.

the other thing i would hate to be is the one who tells a woman,any woman she can't do a good job,any job because she has children.

now there are these dumb democratic support groups out there that are pushing this crap about sarah palin.

friends i've got to tell you if you want to survive in this world and eat dinner at the dinner table instead of being tied up in the back yard eating out of a bowl; then don't ever tell a woman she can't do something.

fred said she the first person that will be elected to office who can field dress a moose.

except maybe teddy roosevelt.

see there "it's just my nature to be informative".

and by the way john see if you can get my house in on your deal because i'm ready to get the "f" outta here too.

it seems to me there are some including the ones at city hall and their fans want to shut you down.

it also seems that everytime you go there and talk to them thats their focus.

well they oughta focus on bicknell instead of what people are saying about them and maybe just maybe this would be a good place to live.

i've also noticed that they ask you to be more positive as to whats put on your site.

maybe if city hall did something positive in bicknell people would write about it.

so far they've done nothing positive for the people of bicknell.unless you call overcharging for utilities and painting everything in sight positive.

i know some are going to say i'm wrong but you know what i'm not wrong.

Wed, 09/03/2008 - 6:04pm — Anonymous

just your nature

I guess Fred is a better actor than he's given credit for.

He even fooled you.

and also the fact that you can cuss someone out in five languages, really has a lot to say about your intellectual abilities.

We people who don't have to cuss everyone out, PITY YOU

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 9:07pm — john

The City Decided

And so it begins.

John R. Stanczak

Wed, 09/03/2008 - 8:03am — Anonymous

Bruceville

Bruceville has shown some wisdom in acquiring GRANTS for most of the cost of this project. It would have been extremely hard on Bruceville residents if they would have done it like Bicknell with no grants.

Not that it isn't hard now but the project is needed. Bruceville unlike Freelandville is incorporated and can be forced by IDEM to reduce pollution.

However could they have spent what each house will spend to hook up on repairing malfunctioning septic tank systems?

And saved millions?

Maybe.

I'm sure Bruceville debated this question before deciding to proceed.

To go with a central sewage system likely will promote growth and at the same time solve their pollution problem.

Costly but effective.

Lets hope Bruceville maintains their system well and doesn't have to replace their plant sometime down the road.

Ron Ackman