Discussion of a proposed $70 million sewer bond issue dominated the Terre Haute, Ind., City Council’s monthly sunshine meeting Thursday evening.
Taking up the first two hours of a lengthy agenda, council members grilled Terre Haute city engineer Chuck Ennis, Indianapolis attorney Dennis Otten and H.J. Umbaugh & Associates consultant Deen Rogers of Indianapolis about why the cost is so high. The nine-member council is scheduled to vote on the proposal next Thursday during its regular meeting.
Given the tenor of Thursday’s meeting, it appeared unlikely the $70 million plan would gain council approval.
“What I heard the council saying was, there are still a lot of questions,” Councilman Todd Nation told the Tribune-Star. “Personally, I have not arrived at a level of comfort that allows me to vote ‘yes’ on $70 million-plus of bonding capacity for this.”
Nation said his biggest concern about the proposal is the amount of money.
“The information that was shared with us tonight, about how much the relative pieces cost, makes me think there might be as much as $10 million that could be shaved off,” he continued. “The question is, is that the job of the council or the job of the city engineer and his team as they value-engineer the project further?”
When the council voted 6-3 last November to raise sewer rates, it was acting with the understanding the project would cost about $42 million. But in August, two bonds totaling $85 million were proposed to finance the work. The Sanitary District Board of Commissioners has approved both bonds, but only the $70 million bond requires council action.
“Simply, it’s too much,” Councilman Earl Elliott said during a break in the meeting. “It needs to be less. I think there’s a number of ‘needs’ that need to be covered, but there’s also a lot of ‘wants’ that are in that $70 million and we need to flush those out, so to speak.”
Elliott also mentioned during the back-and-forth discussion that he believed council members could have been included more in behind-the-scenes meetings as the cost of the project rose so dramatically in the last year.
“They were putting the plan together and they knew the cost was going to be a lot more than any paperwork we had,” he explained later. “Why they just don’t tell us... We could start warming up to the idea that it’s going to be a lot. This council will not rubber-stamp things. We’ll be deliberate and take our time and make an informed decision when we’re ready.
“We’re just not as fast as they think we oughta be.”
Elliott admitted there is urgency to get something done because the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) has set a timeline for Terre Haute to comply with the 1972 Clean Water Act.
“I’m not concerned about a month or two to make the best decision for our community,” he emphasized. “And I would hope IDEM wouldn’t be concerned about that either.”
“We know that this has to be done,” Council President Karrum Nasser acknowledged during the break. “IDEM mandates that. But I think the council wants to make sure that we’re protecting the taxpayers and only spending what we absolutely have to spend, not what we want to spend.”
Nasser agreed with Elliott that the proposal contains options “that aren’t necessary.”
Asked what newspaper readers and television viewers should take away from Thursday’s discussion, Nasser replied: “We’re protecting the taxpayers, not spending a dime more than we absolutely have to to meet the IDEM and EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] requirements.”
During the public discussion, Councilwoman Martha Crossen said she wants to comply with the order, but her concerns about the project are real and she wants answers.
“I have a strange feeling [a vote in favor of the $70 million bond] isn’t going to happen,” Councilman George Azar noted.
Nation even said he’d like to see this issue put off until after the next mayoral election.
“They’ve lost my trust, the administration has,” he said.
“I feel like we’ve been in the dark,” Councilwoman Amy Auler added.
Meanwhile, Councilman Curtis DeBaun said he’d like to see a dialogue start about selling the Terre Haute wastewater treatment plant so it can be run by a private company.
