By DAVE SCHULTZ

While Main Street/Wells County Road 300W in Liberty Center has been repaved, as is evident at the left of the photo, a storm drain just off the west side of Main Street has caused some concern because it has created a hole approximately six inches deep — although the top of the drain is about two inches below the road surface. The photo shows the intersection of Main and Market streets in the background with the Liberty Center Gas and Deli on the right. (Photo by Dave Schultz)

The board of the Wells County Regional  Sewer District had some good news, considered a road problem in Liberty Center, and made some payments for construction work and even repaid a loan to Wells County.

In short, the RSD’s board — Mike Mossburg, Jon Oman, Bruce Stinson, Andy Stoller, and Leon Berning — covered a lot of ground Tuesday night as it mostly closed out the Liberty Center and Murray projects and geared up for Craigville, Tocsin, and Kingsland projects.

Liberty Center residents have been irritated by the condition of Main Street/300W during the installation of a sanitary sewer  collection system there. The work’s been completed and the road has ben repaired, for the most part.

Lewis Brown, the RSD’s superintendent, noted the road  repair but  board members noted that a storm drain on the west side of  Main Street is a  threat to vehicle tires. The domed drain is about two inches short of the surface of the road and about six inches lower than the road at its base.

Three of the five board members want it addressed — even though, as Brown noted, the problem was present on the road before the sewer system was put in.

Nevertheless, it is a problem.

“It’s not OK,” said Mossburg, the board’s president. “It’s got to be dealt with.”

On the other  hand, Brown noted that some connections have been made to the system as the notice of completion and connection notices has been sent to property owners. They have 90 days to connect to the system and to decommission their septic systems.

There are four property owners who have not paid anything since interim payments starrted, Brown said, and he said he’d be filing liens on their properties Monday morning.

The board also paid some claims, with one of  them — to VTF Excavation LLC, the contractor who did most of the sewer system installation in the two communities — receiving nearly $1.4 million for its work.

Several other bills were paid from State Revolving Fund loans extended to the RSD. That amount included $450,000 in loans extended to the RSD has it started work on the communities.

daves@news-banner.com

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