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Council cautious about waste project in Fillmore
FILLMORE -- Revisiting a plan first proposed at the end of 2018, the Fillmore Town Council is now considering whether it would be beneficial to further align sewage with Greencastle.
During the council’s regular meeting Thursday, Mayor Bill Dory spoke about the City of Greencastle’s want to built a tank near a lift station in the town. This would be where a chemical used to neutralize hydrogen sulfide would be injected into the wastewater.
Hydrogen sulfide is a gas which rises into the airway portion of a pipe and reacts with bacteria and moisture on its walls. The result is sulfuric acid, which then corrodes the metal.
“We’d like to get this process started,” Dory said, estimating that the tank would have a pump that could inject between 12-15 gallons of the chemical into the line.
He suggested that the city would incur the responsibility of maintaining it, in return for hooking into an electrical panel where the tank would be located. While Greencastle would cover the cost to build it, Fillmore would cover only the electrical -- which was stated to not be a significant load.
Greencastle Wastewater Superintendent Oscar King also attended the meeting with Dory. He responded to questions from Fillmore’s utilities operator Joe Cash, who asked whether a double-walled tank could be installed to prevent leakage.
This point was one of contention with the council in 2018, as it was said then that the tank would be located by a stream. Nonetheless, King said he believed that the neutralizing material was biodegradable.
Before they left the meeting, Dory said that Greencastle City Attorney Laurie Hardwick would be in contact with Town Attorney Jeff Boggess.
After Dory and King left, Cash remained skeptical of the city’s intention with installing the injection system within the town.
“My honest opinion is that they (can) put it in their own lift station,” he said, questioning why it had to go in first at Fillmore. He added that the pump station in question receives waste from nearby factories, not only from the town itself.
In 2018, it was stated that the sewage line between Fillmore and Greencastle was connected to a lift station on Westwood Road. Ultimately, the idea behind introducing the chemical has been to prolong the lifespan of this line.
As it was with the council then, a potential cost to the town in the future did not settle much this time. It remains to be seen where that cost really could be.
In other business:
• Clerk-Treasurer Jayna Haldeman also presented the figures for the town’s projected budget for 2021. The council held a public hearing which saw no comments from those in attendance.
The council is set to vote to approve the budget at its regular meeting next month.
• The council held its second reading for Ordinance 2020-5, which establishes policies and procedures for ridding bad debt and handling uncollectable accounts receivable. The council voted to adopt the ordinance.
• The council had its first reading for a new version of Ordinance 2020-6, which would require any local in-home daycare/childcare within the town to be licensed by the state.
Boggess raised a concern during the council’s August meeting that the original wording barred providers with a minimum number of children. The new one suggests that any state-unlicensed daycare facility -- which the Indiana Code stipulates is one caring for less than six children -- cannot operate within the town.
Boggess and Town Marshal Darrel Bunten were absent at the meeting.
The next regular meeting of the Fillmore Town Council is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. at the Fillmore Town Hall.