Fresh start for Portage utility board
Chicago Tribune
March 10, 2017
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-portage-utility-st-0313-20170310-story.html
The City Council and Mayor James Snyder appeared to put a contentious February behind them as the council had its first meeting as the new Portage Utility Services Board.
The new board turned to Snyder, who remains as the utility's executive, for guidance, as Snyder promised an "open door" policy, and the new board also took care of routine utilities business March 7.
"I think the City Council's going to do a great job," said City Council President Mark Oprisko, who was elected chair of the utility board. "Let's move forward in a very kind, respectful way. The mayor is still in charge of the utility."
Snyder said he looked forward "to this board moving forward."
"I think it's a wonderful thing everyone here's involved," he added later, adding his office door "is always open."
Last month, the council voted to remove Snyder as a member of the utility board, eliminate his chairman's salary from the board, move the utility's finances to the Clerk-Treasurer's office, and, later, voted to take over the board. Soon after, the board responded by hiring an Indianapolis-based law firm against the council's actions.
The council agreed to keep Snyder on as the executive, with the $30,000 salary.
Along with electing Oprisko as its chairman, the board elected Councilman Scott Williams its vice-chair and replaced former board attorney Katrina Spence with Ken Elwood, of the law firm Rhame & Elwood.
Elwood also represents the City Council.
In its first act, the new board heard wide-ranging bids from four firms to install a sanitary sewer along an easement backing a single family home and five duplexes on the west side of Swanson Rd., south of Clem Road and north of a set of train tracks.
The bids ranged from a low of $146,429 from Grimmer Construction, of Highland, to $261,666 from Gough Construction, of Merrillville.
The homes along the stretch have relied on septic tanks, but those tanks are failing, and Porter County officials ruled they have to switch to Portage's sewer system, said City Engineer John Hannon.
"It's really a health issue we're dealing with," Hannon said.
The owners of the single family home and each of the duplex units, which total of 11 overall, will have to pay $2,250 to tap into the sewer system, officials said.
The board also scored a win in acquiring an important six-acre parcel north of City Hall, stretching eastward from Willowcreek Road. Holladay Properties, the company behind the Ameriplex properties and the upcoming Promenade at Founders Square, agreed to give the parcel to the city in exchanging for the board waiving a $350,000 tap-on fee tying the promenade to the city's sewer system.
The parcel is worth about $1.1 million, Snyder said. With the board's vote passing a resolution approving the exchange, the utility gets property it eventually would have had to acquire by eminent domain or by some other means, he added.
"Us being able to get (the parcel) this way is really a big deal for us," Snyder said.
Hannon also updated the board on the Robinswood sewer lift station. The board agreed to pay two claims on the $835,000 project, which should be complete "within a couple of weeks," Hannon said.
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