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Roanoke asking IDEM for five years to close lagoon

The Roanoke Town Council discussed the submission of a closure plan for a contaminated lagoon by the town’s wastewater treatment plant at its meeting on Tuesday, June 19.

In the plan, the town petitions the Indiana Department of Environmental Management for five years to close the lagoon.

Holly Miller, a public works project manager with engineering firm DLZ, noted at council’s June 5 meeting that the cost of closure could total $1 million. Of the ways to foot the cost for that bill, Councilman John Stoeckley stated that he was opposed to a utility rate increase. Clerk-Treasurer JoAnne Kirchner responded that if IDEM forced the town to close the lagoon in three years instead of five, a rate hike would be necessary.

Kirchner added that she and Council President Dave Tucker had met with a bank on June 18 to discuss the town’s funding options for the closure.

The board passed Ordinance 2018-2, which amended the ordinance that created the town’s wastewater reserve fund. The new ordinance increased the amount of money going into that fund from the sewer operating fund from $7,000 a month to $9,500. Those funds will help the town pay for the closure.

Miller stated that she would submit the closure plan to IDEM on June 20. Phil Hibbert, the town’s supervisor of operations, noted that there was no timeline on how long it would take IDEM to review the plan.

In other business:

• Ryan Carroll, of the Roanoke Volunteer Fire Department, reported that the town’s new fire truck was still on track to be delivered by Summit Fire Apparatus in July. Carroll also mentioned that the department’s repeater atop one of the town’s water towers was still not functioning properly. The repeater’s range has been limited ever since AT&T had equipment installed on the tower.

Hibbert expressed hope that progress would be made on resolving the issue at a meeting he had scheduled with AT&T and Dixon Engineering on June 20.

• Kirchner once again requested that the town’s department heads submit tentative 2019 budgets to her. As she works on next year’s budget, Kirchner stated that she was considering increasing it by three percent over the 2018 budget.

• Hibbert reported that mixing units would be reinstalled in the town’s water towers. The units, which circulate the towers’ water, had ceased functioning earlier this year, but were now repaired.