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Andrews council hears infrastructure info

The Andrews Town Council spent the majority of its meeting on Monday, June 22, listening to information presented during a public hearing regarding planning for water, wastewater and stormwater facilities.

Jim McNulty and Matt Smith, of Strand Associates, presented plans for four water plant options, five wastewater plant options and three storm water options. This was the final of two required public hearings.

The current water plant building was constructed in 1939, McNulty said. He added that the main issue is iron filtration from water. The aged filter has maintenance issues and is hard to fix due to its location within the plant.

McNulty gave four options for water plant — do nothing, connect to an outside utility, construct a new pressure filter water plant or construct a new gravity filter water plant.

He recommended the fourth option, building a new gravity filter water plant. It would be constructed on the site of the existing plant and have a capital cost of $2,739,000. The gravity filter water plant has an open top filter to dry the filter process so employees can view what is happening inside the filter without opening it up, said McNulty.

The water produced by the current plant meets drinking water standards, he said, but there is a small amount of iron getting into the filter.

Smith gave five options for the waste water plant — do nothing, connect to an outside utility, rehabilitate the existing ditch and construct a new oxidation ditch, clarifiers and other improvements, construct a new Aero-Mod wastewater plant or construct new smaller oxidation ditches, clarifiers and other improvements.

He recommended option five, constructing smaller oxidation ditches, clarifiers and other improvements. The capital cost would be $3.6 million.

McNulty added that these updates are necessary because the physical facilities are wearing out from age. Some funding could come from grants, but it also could lead to an increase in water and sewer rates for citizens of the Town of Andrews, he added.

McNulty gave three options for handling stormwater — do nothing, construct limited improvements on Main Street or construct a collection system for the north side of Andrews. He recommended option two due to its low capital cost of $162,898. Option three would cost the town $1,585,195.

Andrews does not currently have stormwater utility fees in place, but it is something that could be implemented. McNulty added that some grants are available for funding, but the town is more likely to be chosen for grants if it has a storm utility fee.

These recommendations will be submitted to Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs for feedback before the town can look into funding options for these projects. The projects would be completed in 2017 or 2018, McNulty said.

In other business:

• The council approved a resolution for the Andrews Master Utility Study by the Town Council of the Town of Andrews.

• The council approved moving forward with adding more monitoring wells to the town, working with SES, an environmental, health and safety compliance firm based in Fort Wayne. President Michael Rohler added that the wells should not interfere with day to day business of the town.

• Fire Chief Tom Wuensch updated the council on the status of flood zone monitoring. The fire department has been working with the Army Corps of Engineers to contain flood waters, he said.

The council approved the department to use $2,500 of its training budget to send five firefighters for training.

• Rohler said he is withdrawing his name from the fall town council ballot. He is unable to run because he will no longer be a resident of Huntington County, he explained.

Rohler has served as president of the Andrews Town Council for five years.