SIDNEY – Fixing Sidney’s sewer plant was discussed during the town council meeting Monday.
“The plant is 14 years old, and we’re having failures,” said council President Sharon Rancourt. Each failure was causing Turkey Creek Regional Sewer District Superintendent Tim Woodward to take parts from different places to fix the issue at hand. “It’s not an easy plant to run.”
Rancourt said the town council’s job was to leave the town in better shape than when they started.
The possibility of an Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs grant was discussed. Rancourt said she reached out about the grant just to see what the town was eligible for.
Rancourt said the town was eligible for up to $600,000, with an 80/20 match. Rancourt said just because the town is eligible for the $600,000, it doesn’t mean the town would get the full amount.
Jeff Hersha, of Jones & Henry Engineers Ltd., said OCRA targets communities with a population under 10,000. With a population that Sidney has, he said that they would be a higher priority.
There are things that would be needed, which includes a preliminary engineering report, which would do multiple things, such as accessing the condition of the plant, prioritizing infrastructure upgrades and understanding any deficiencies within the utility.
Woodward said he’s worked with Hersha for many years and he does good work, so Jones & Henry Engineers Ltd. was one possibility of who would do the preliminary engineering report.
Rancourt said it would probably be 2021 when the town would apply for the grant since it’s already June.
No final decision was made during Monday’s meeting.
Rancourt updated the council on where the town was in regards to compliance with the State Board of Accounts.
She said the debt affirmation report, prebudget worksheet for 2021, all minutes for 2018, 2019 and January and February were submitted.
Rancourt said that brings Sidney very close to full compliance with the SBOA.
The town council also approved a motion to change the second signer on the town’s account to Rancourt.
Rancourt pointed out that if something happened to Clerk-Treasurer Lisa Parrett, Rancourt as council president could still write checks. She also brought up the issue that the two signers - Lisa and Gavin Parrett - were in the same family.
Gavin agreed there was an issue with the family relation of the two signers, but did say there was multiple delays in getting the account signed over from former Clerk-Treasurer Lydia Neal over to Lisa when she was appointed May 26, so he didn’t know how long it would take to do it with limited access to banks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was approved that the town would transfer Gavin’s signing rights over to Rancourt as soon as possible, realizing that it might take awhile.
