By DAVE SCHULTZ
The board of the Wells County Regional Sewer District found itself dealing with important things Monday night — mainly, time and money.
Also, a lack of people.
The last item first. The board has five members and only three of them — Andy Stoller, Leon Berning, and Jon Oman — were present for Monday night’s meeting. The other two, Mike Mossburg and Bruce Stinson, the board’s president and vice president, were absent. Stoller, who ended up presiding over the meeting, said both men had possibly been exposed to COVID-19 and so did not come to the Wells Carnegie Government Annex for the meeting.
That left a minimal quorum — three-fifths of the board — to discuss some matters of significance. After reviewing the year-end financial report presented by Trent Bucher of the Honegger Ringger accounting firm, Stoller, Berning, and Oman heard from RSD Superintendent L.A. Brown and Ryan Lefeld of Choice One Engineering. Each of them had something of significance to say.
Bucher told the board in a four-page report that the district had a net income of minus-$228,808.60 for 2021 as work began on what is being referred to as Phase 1 — the installation of sanitary sewer collection systems in Liberty Center and Murray. The district’s actual income was $45,107 in customer fees and 6 cents in investments. However, it had expenses such as $68,220 in engineering fees and nearly $172,000 in professional services (accounting, legal, and others). The total expenses for the year were $273,915.67.
Brown then talked about his report, which had its ups and downs. On the plus side, he gave the crews from VTF Excavating high marks for the quality of their work, particularly in regard to keeping debris off of the job site. As Brown put it, “VTF is doing their best to keep things clean and neat.”
He also noted that the company was to start digging a pit for the lift station Monday for Liberty Center and the structure would be set Wednesday. As a result, he said, 300W — the main north-south road through the community — would be closed Wednesday and Thursday near 300S.
The problem in Liberty Center, he said, is that no grinder pump easements have yet been acquired anywhere. There are three reasons why that is, he said: It takes time, many people are not home during the day, and easements must be notarized.
That’s a problem for the VTF crews, because Brown said they want to be putting those grinders in place starting at the end of this week.
In Murray, Brown reported, VTF is working only four days a week because of the weather. “They are choosing the best four days based on (the) weather report,” he said.
Over half of the grinder stations have been installed in Murray, and some of the force mains to the grinders have been installed.
Brown stated that even though the RSD board had voted last month to begin taking delinquent rate payers to court, Brown said no liens had yet been filed. Most of the liens are in the Liberty Center area, he said. He said he would wait until he asks homeowners to approve a grinder easement and then he would ask them to pay their RSD bills.
Most of the rest of the two-hour meeting was taken up with what the RSD refers to as Phase 2 — extending sanitary sewer service to Craigville.
“We need to decide (the) final plan for areas outside (the) main route,” Brown said, getting that conversation started. “We need to be working on easements now.”
Brown also wanted to know if a second public meeting for residents of the Craigville area could be held.
Then Lefeld came to the table in front of the board and said that he’d like to see the Craigville project go out for bids the middle of February. That would be only four or five weeks from now.
Giving their approval to the complete scope of the Craigville sewer project was not something the three RSD board members present wanted to take up on their own. They wanted Mossburg and Stinson present as well, and Lefeld and Mark Burry, the RSD’s attorney, agreed with that sentiment.
“I can certainly understand why,” Burry said.
As a result, Stoller, Berning, and Oman agreed to set up a special meeting in two weeks — on Jan. 24 or sometime that week, depending on the availability of a venue and the board members’ schedules. Nate Rumschlag, the Wells County engineer who has been advising the board and serving as its recording secretary, will make the arrangements for the special meeting.
daves@news-banner.com
