After a few sparks flew, Kosciusko County Commissioners made adjustments to and then approved the final plat for the proposed but yet unnamed regional sewer district to serve the Tippecanoe and Chapman lakes area.
Ken Jones, CEO of engineering firm Jones Petrie Rafinzki, recommended commissioners omit the Old Mill Place subdivision near Tippecanoe Lake and properties in and adjacent to the Lake Forest addition close to Chapman Lake.
“To make the change, we would officially change the map and rewrite the legal description,” said Jones.
“One thing you should know is that the overall design of the system will have capacity for some growth,” he said. Jones said if property owners change their minds in the future and want to be included, they would go to the regional sewage district board and make that request.
Three opponents to the district were allowed to speak, even though Commissioners President Bob Conley made it clear there would be no stopping the district on Tuesday.
Bob Kokenge said he had gathered signatures from owners of 180 properties, mostly on Little Chapman Lake, who neither want nor need sewer lines.
“The lake needs to be controlled. The dam is plugged up by beavers. I don’t know if Mr. jones hired the beavers,” Kokenge joked.
“If the lake was controlled a little better, there are some people who wouldn’t have these problems. Most of us have very good systems that were put in by county standards and work very well.”
The sparks came when Elaine Kokenge spoke. First she presented the commissioners with a paper she’d prepared making the case against the district and then placed 14 sheets of paper with the logo of the group opposed printed on them on the table.
She then turned her attention to Cary Groninger, commissioners vice president and owner of G&G Excavating. She had heard that when septic systems are uninstalled, a specific type of “certified soil” was needed for fill.
“Cary, is it true that there are only two places in the county that are allowed to transport this certified soil to fill our septic tanks? Are there only two people, and one of them is you?” she said. “Everyone said the tanks are destroyed and they are filled with certified soil and that is specifically the only soil that is allowed to fill those tanks with the destruction process. Is it true that only two people in the county have that?”
Groninger answered, “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Certified soil?”
Commissioner Brad Jackson didn’t appreciate the implication that any government official was serving to the best interest of their business.
“We serve because we do what’s good for the community and for you to insinuate (Groninger) is doing this for money is totally false and I’m not going to listen to it,” Jackson said.
Kokenge apologized, saying that’s what she had heard.
Jones sought to clarify the process in question.
“The material that is left in the tank is evacuated to an appropriate treatment center. The top of the tank is crushed and the tank is filled with gravel or sand. There isn’t a certified grade or stipulation that I know of for that material,” he said.
The plat was approved, and the next step in forming the district comes Nov. 8, when the county commissioners and council will hold a joint meeting to vote on the district’s petition to Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The joint meeting, expected to last about 30 minutes, preceeds the monthly council meeting.
