NORTH VERNON — A proposed $3.8 million project aimed at improving Jennings Northwest Regional Utilities’ wastewater treatment plant and collection system could soon be more than just a pipe dream.
JNRU, which primarily serves Country Squire Lakes, is in line to receive a portion of federal economic stimulus money allocated to Indiana.
The funds will be used to finance a proposed $3.8 million project to rehabilitate the ailing utility.
The Indiana Finance Authority announced Wednesday that Country Squire Lakes residents will begin seeing surveyors turning up on their doorstep this week.
Surveyors will walk JNRU customers through an income survey.
The surveys are required by the state before JNRU can be eligible for grant funding to complete needed upgrades to its wastewater treatment plant and collection system.
Jeff Fish, JNRU’s manager, said the utility is in need of major improvements to put an end to noncompliance violations the utility frequently has with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
The violations stem from two problems that have plagued the utility:
1. Overflow from its sewage collection system.
2. In winter, the treatment plant frequently freezes, preventing adequate sewage treatment.
Studies for projects aimed at rectifying those problems were completed in 2005 and 2006, but the lack of state funding kept them grounded.
Since learning of the possibility of stimulus funding, JNRU has updated the previous studies and is ready to move.
“That has been like the golden lottery ticket,” Fish said of the likelihood of receiving federal stimulus money.
Without the federal grants, debt forgiveness and restructuring, the project would be all but impossible.
“We can’t afford any more debt at all,” Fish said.
The project will be longterm and require several different contractors, potentially putting many local job-seekers to work, which is the basis of the economic stimulus plan.
“Just about everybody out here is going to see pipe laid next to their home,” he said of the project’s scope.
The project stands to be a milestone for JNRU, which has struggled over the past several years with an unpopular and failed expansion attempt in 1999 and a plant that’s had difficulty dealing with Indiana winters.
Both issues have saddled JNRU with significant debt.
As of December, the utility was about $6.5 million in debt.
“We have to have a successful project,” Fish said.
“This is going to bring JNRU out of the dark hole it’s been in for years.”
“It puts our feet under us good and solid.”
Fish also noted that the project is not expected to raise monthly sewer bills for at least three to five years.
JNRU’s next board meeting will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at the Country Squire Lakes Community Building.
Information: JNRU, 346-5500 or jnru.org.
