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Covering Milford, Syracuse & North Webster, Indiana
Making His Hometown Better
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Page 5 One Nation Under God themail-journal.com
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Milford nearly finished with 50-year-old wastewater ponds %\ '$9,' +$=/(',1( 6WDII :ULWHU
($57+ 029(5 ³ 2QH RI WKH EXOOGR]HUV EHLQJ XVHG E\ %HHU DQG 6ODEDXJK ,QF WR ÀOO LQ WKH UHPQDQWV RI WKH UHWDLQLQJ SRQGV XVHG WR WUHDW 0LOIRUG·V ZDVWHZDWHU IURP WR ,Q ,'(0 PDQGDWHG WKH WRZQ FOHDQ WKH SRQGV RI DQ\ UHPDLQLQJ ELRZDVWH QHFHVVLWDWLQJ D UHFODPDWLRQ SURMHFW ,Q )HEUXDU\ WKH\ ZHUH GHHPHG SURSHUO\ FORVHG DQG ZRUN EHJDQ WR ÀOO WKHP LQ 3KRWR E\ 6WHYHQ 0DUTXDUW After completion of the new facility, the ponds sat unused on 5 acres until they again caught IDEM’s attention around 2020. They would have to be cleaned of all remaining biosolids and then filled in. Wealing Brothers started dewatering the ponds in May 2022. In June, bulldozers began to remove the large ponds’ clay lining and push the biosolids to pumps, which filled dump trucks and hauled the material off-site. As of Aug. 11, 780,000 gallons had been removed. On Aug. 15, the two smaller ponds were excavated and a total of 146 tons of biosol-
ids, clay liner and other materials were removed. Wealing Brothers’ final bill was $280,069, which combined with Beer and Slabaugh’s quote of $19,500, brings the total cost so far to just under $300,000. On Feb. 10, 2023, Brubaker received notification from IDEM’s Office of Land Quality the ponds had been “properly closed.” Beer and Slabaugh began the process of filling in the ponds shortly thereafter; however, work has been hampered by heavy rains. Water, Street and Park Superintendent Steven Marquart and Brubaker are looking forward to the ad-
ditional space soon to be available to the town. “It feels good to get it cleaned up. Once it’s leveled off, it will give us more room for future expansion, possibly a new utility building in the distant future where we can house all of our equipment in one building.” Marquart also noted the nutrient rich soil around the ponds made the area difficult to maintain, as grass, weeds and trees grew easily. Brubaker looks forward to making the wastewater plant’s sludge available for agricultural land application, which will minimize the cost of sludge disposal in the future.
Township building maintains rich history 7H[W DQG 3KRWRV %\ .(,7+ .1(33 6WDII :ULWHU Once it was the hub of community activities in North Webster. More recently, the soon-to-be former Tippecanoe Township building on South Morton found itself in competition with the North Webster Community Center. It was a battle it wasn’t going to win, and quite frankly one which Township Trustee Chris Francis had no real interest in competing. Soon, it will take on its next chapter as the township prepares to sell it to a local church. According to Sue Ann Mitchell, the former Tippecanoe Township assessor, the building was constructed in 1951 for use as a manufacturing facility for Blue Bell, a Columbia Continued on page 2
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Bids on dike project due March 14 Bids for the Lake Wawasee Dike Rehabilitation Project will be received and opened at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 14. The bids will be opened and
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%\ /($+ 6$1'(5 6WDII :ULWHU Kosciusko County Commissioners have OK’d applying for a grant to deal with the opioid epidemic locally. At its Tuesday, Feb. 28, meeting, commissioners approved a request brought by Kosciusko County Council and County Opioid Committee member Sue Ann Mitchell to apply for an Opioid Settlement Match Grant from the state. It’s meant to accompany funds the county received as part of Indiana’s participation in a multi-state settlement reached with Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen for their contribution to the national opioid epidemic. If the county receives the grant, it will have $405,000 to spend on three projects the committee decided upon: $60,000 for counseling at the Kosciusko County Jail; $45,000 for counseling for participants in the Kosciusko County Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative; and $300,000 for Fellowship Missions to have a building for counseling. The committee initially decided last week it wanted to expand Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory’s C.A.R.E.S. program countywide. That program currently allows first responders in Warsaw to meet with those experiencing mental health or addiction problems. Mitchell explained at the commissioners meeting why the program expansion isn’t included in the grant request. “(The) C.A.R.E.S. program is what we really, really wanted to do,” she said. “But after we looked at the cost and the impact it would have on the county, the county is not geared up to do that kind of service. It would be totally outside our bailiwick and in this short frame in order to qualify for this grant, we could not pull the pieces together to make it happen.” She noted the committee’s work isn’t done yet, with the county only receiving $266,561.25 so far of the $1.3 million-plus it’s receiving
through the settlement. That money will come in over a 17-year period. “The hope would be that we could pull together something, so we can provide that kind of service Warsaw is providing under their C.A.R.E.S. program to other areas to reach out to our whole community,” said Mitchell. In other business, the commissioners: • Approved a resolution regarding a cybersecurity personnel policy. Through it, county employees must take “initial security awareness training” within a month of their hiring or start date and complete “security awareness refresher training” annually. The county’s information technology department will send fake phishing messages to employees to test them, and there will be punishment for not following the rules. • Approved a contract with Quality Correctional Care for $472,508.20 annually to provide medical and mental health services at KCJ. Kosciusko County Sheriff Jim Smith noted the county has used the company “for many years now. The biggest change, and the one I’m most excited about inside this contract is, the ability we’re going to have to increase our mental health (services),” added Smith. “We’re going to go from 16 hours a month to 96 hours a minimum a month of mental health for the general population of the inmates.” • Approved a request brought by Kosciusko County Prosecutor Brad Voelz for the county to do support work for a special prosecutor handling child support cases in the area when there is a conflict of interest. The state opted not to renew its contract with the county to do those services, so Kosciusko will do the work until the state picks someone else to do it. • Approved two rezoning requests previously approved by the Kosciusko County Area Plan Commission at its Feb. 1 meeting. They were on behalf of Tom Hardy to rezone 4 acres along CR 700E in the southeast corner of the county from Continued on page 2
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read at a public meeting at the Turkey Creek Dam and Dike Conservancy District office. That office is located at the Wawasee Area Conservancy
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On Feb. 20, heavy machine operators from Beer and Slabaugh Inc. began the process of filling in three unused retaining ponds on the Milford Wastewater Treatment Facility property at 1001 W. 1250N. The work is expected to be completed by the end of March — weather permitting — and will conclude a lengthy clean-up process begun in 2022 and costing the town approximately $300,000. From 1971 to 2004, the town of Milford relied on a three-cell lagoon system to treat its wastewater. Prior to 1971, wastewater simply ran into Turkey Creek, according to Wastewater Superintendent Mark Brubaker. The lagoon system was comprised of a large pond and two smaller “polishing” ponds, which helped settle out heavier biosolids. The water then moved through a chlorine contact tank before returning to Turkey Creek. One problem with the system was the buildup of ammonia nitrogen, especially in the winter. In 1993, 1.1 million gallons of sludge was removed and land applied in an attempt to alleviate the problem. But by the early 2000s, the lagoon was unable to comply with increasingly strict Indiana Department of Environmental Management standards. “They couldn’t meet IDEM’s permit levels,” said Brubaker, who added many area communities still utilizing lagoons also face problems with ammonia compliance. Milford chose to build a new mechanical wastewater plant. In a 2004 noncompliance notification form to IDEM, then superintendent Dallas Winchester informed the state, “The construction of a new activated sludge-type facility is approximately 95% complete. … Hopefully, with no further delays the new facility should be online February 2005.”
Commissioners OK opioid grant application
Foundation Office, SR 13, Syracuse. A pre-bid meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 7, at the district office.
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