Sewer Project Grant Denied

(posted Mar 8)

The March 5th announcement that the grant pre-application for the Gerrard-Allison sewer project was rejected by the Indiana Office of Rural Affairs brought Judy Perfetto close to tears.

Perfetto, like other homeowners, has been waiting since 2006 for the town to take action to keep flood waters out of their basements. Perfetto said "I am tired of filling out town surveys, submitting photos and reliving the nightmare of my basement backing up with sewage when it is all for nothing."

Jill Curry of the IOCRA said the agency's concern was including more homes than would actually benefit from the project.

Town Manager Barbara Lawrence said "Based upon recent discussions with the Office of Community and Rural Affairs, the Town's pre-application for the storm water project in the Gerrard & Allison area was determined to have a technical issue related to the area of benefit and income survey that disqualified it from funding under the Community Focus Fund guidelines. While disappointing, it is common for a project like this to face challenges and set-backs. Regardless, the Town is moving forward with the project-- currently continuing the design phase to completion. Speedway will continue to look at all options for potential funding, including the state revolving fund program, local revenues, bonding and of course, the stimulus money."

At the February 23 town council meeting, Lawrence said preliminary engineering information shows that substantial flows are coming from west of Lynhurst, impacting those neighborhoods and leading to the problems in the Allison / Gerrard area. She said the information would make a stronger case to qualify for the grant. "There is a broader base beneficiary for the overall project." She stated she would now call the project the Speedway Storm Relief Project.

The town was applying for a $500,000 Community Block Grant program. The town is expected to spend $2.5 million on the project from other sources.

Not only did the town receive denial to this application, it had to delay another grant application due to government regulations. At the Feb 9 town council meeting, Wastewater Superintendent Norm Berry said the sewer master plan grant application would be delayed until fall because guidelines will not allow the town to submit two applications at once.

The town did not have the master sewer plan grant application on standby to submit as a back up plan . Lawrence explained the town does not have enough time now to submit the application for the sewer master plan before the March 13 deadline. "No, unfortunately... it's a fairly involved process and we didn't file a pre-application in January to start the potential funding for the project."