By Brian Boyce
Public opposition may flush plans for a Newport sewer system down the drain.
At a public meeting Tuesday night, fewer than 10 citizens supported the pursuit of grant funds to construct a sewer system in the town, while about 30 opposed the move, officials said Wednesday.
According to Mary Bemis, the town’s clerk-treasurer, Newport is the only county seat in Indiana without a sewer system. Newport’s 270-plus buildings, including the Vermillion County Courthouse, use septic systems.
The topic will be broached again Monday at 4:30 p.m. in the fire department’s town hall building, and Bemis said the decision likely will reflect the will of the people.
Feasibility studies concerning sewers in Vermillion County have been ongoing since 2007, she said. This most recent push was made by Commonwealth Engineering based on possible grant money that could be used to offset the estimated $6.6 million project.
But according to Bemis and Gidget Hall, owner of Gidget’s Deli and Market, the big concern on people’s minds was the financial impact felt in nearby Cayuga when its residents had to pay sewage bills.
“I just think that we have too many elderly, for one, and they can’t afford to pay,” Hall said, predicting senior citizens on $450-a-month Social Security incomes would be forced to move in with children if any additional financial burden were placed upon them.
Annual maintenance on such a system could be $75,000 a year, Bemis said, noting that there are only 251 residential and 21 commercial water meters in town among which to divide that cost and the new bill itself.
According to Bemis, Cayuga and Dana have had to install sewer systems because the state would not allow them to construct new buildings on sites where others had burned or been torn down. Many of the lots in these areas don’t contain enough space for a new septic system, meaning an owner must stick with vacancies or existing buildings on grandfathered lots or get a sewer, she explained.
Town board member Joey Tolbert said the issue already has been voted down once and that he doesn’t expect it to pass Monday. However, he said he supports the idea.
“I personally don’t think we’re going to get new businesses into Newport without a sewer system,” he said, adding that he hopes to host another public meeting to further discuss the topic. “Me personally, I would like to see what available funds we could have to maybe pursue one.”
When asked if overflow from existing septic systems, such as the one for the courthouse, was going into storm drains, Tolbert said he couldn’t say for sure. However, state regulations likely will prohibit much future growth in the town with the present system, he said.
Bemis, who has been clerk-treasurer in Newport for 24 years, said that eventually, the town will have to replace the existing network of septic tanks.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I know that at some point in time it’s going to have to happen. But it may not be in my time. It may be some time down the road.”
Market owner Hall said she hopes that is no time soon. She said she was “appalled” that the engineers making the pitch for the sewer job arrived in a limousine.
“I just thought, ‘Are you kidding me?’” she said from behind the counter of her store. “I just thought it was a big sore thumb for them to show up in a limo and be waited on to be taken wherever.” Many of Newport’s residents are struggling to buy food right now, she added.
Bemis said that if grant money is out there for projects she would rather see it go toward upgrades in the town’s water system.
In the meantime, Hall said, local businesses are barely surviving as it is and the addition of any more fees or bills could bring them all down.
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
