VBL moving forward with planning stages of water/wastewater project

Friday, May 31, 2019

VAN BIBBER LAKE — The $50,000 planning portion of a grant to upgrade the water and wastewater systems at Van Bibber Lake is moving along, the grant administrator reports.

Earlier this week, the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) announced that Putnam County, which is the lead applicant on behalf of the Clinton Township conservancy district, had been approved for a $45,000 planning grant.

However, grant administrator Kristy Jerrell of Jerrell Consulting & Grant Administration Service reports that the money was officially awarded on March 1.

The total project cost is $50,000, with Van Bibber Lake providing the additional $5,000 for the complete grant.

At this point, Jerrell reported, the water portion of the study is complete. The wastewater portion is about five percent complete.

The estimated time of completion of the draft plan is late August.

That should come in well ahead of the schedule provided by OCRA, with the first draft due by Dec. 31 and the final plan to be done by March 31, 2020.

The project engineers are Eric Smith and Dustin Whalen of the HWC Engineering Terre Haute office.

The idea is to create a 20-year roadmap of projects to pursue and design preliminary engineering, recommendations and alternatives.

In a letter to the Putnam County Commissioners last August, Doug Clodfelter, a certified operator who oversees the VBL utilities, outlined the challenges, which include:

• A low income level in the community,

• An water system subject to leaks,

• Water mains that are too small,

• At least half of the community with water mains running under the homes,

• No water meters, which results in wasted water,

• A rapidly aging and undersized iron filter at the treatment plant,

• An old sewer system with clay tiles and infiltration by tree roots,

• Sewer lines that are inaccessible because they are under homes or at the back of property.

Jerrell told the commissioners in the same meeting that she believed the low- to moderate-income level of the community could help in securing future grants for the needed upgrades.

“They’re going to be able to get a lot of free grants,” Jerrell said. “This will be a great way to get dollars into the community.”

Jerrell said that when it comes time to do the actual project, VBL could qualify for grants to cover up to 75 percent of the cost.

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