by Brian Rosenthal
Pharos-Tribune staff writer
August 08, 2008 11:11 pm
—
Hundreds of angry Carroll County residents are preparing to file a class-action lawsuit against a regional sewer district they say is abusing their civil rights for profit.
The citizens’ action group, which calls itself the Free Jefferson Township Citizens, has almost 500 members and is growing. The members are gathering funds to file suit against the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District in hopes that the White County district will stop forcing Carroll residents onto the system.
The FJTC claims that the “tyrannical” district has been charging extreme fees and telling all residents within its boundaries they have to join, even if they’re far away from the lakes and have a functioning septic system. Because they come from out of the county, Carroll residents have no way to control the district.
“Their conduct to the property owners has just been horrendous,” said Carroll Commissioner Bill Brown, who supports the group. “They come onto the properties; they rip and tear and destroy and they’re insolent and they’re rude and they treat their customers like they’re some kind of serf.”
The sewer district was originally formed in Monticello in 1973. It was invited to expand onto the Carroll County side of Lake Freeman in 2000, according to its Web site.
Residents didn’t immediately realize what was happening, said FJTC leader Pat Robertson. By the time some of the residents and a new set of commissioners began to oppose the expansion in 2005, it was too late, she said.
Under Indiana law, once a district gets approval to enlarge its boundaries, it has complete authority to increase its sewer lines and force nearby residents onto the system. When it wants to expand its customer base, the district simply has to notify the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. It doesn’t need approval for the expansion, said Amber Finkelstein, a public information officer for IDEM.
IDEM does have one way to stop the sewer district. The law gives the agency the power to completely dissolve any district if it’s not “economically feasible, fair or reasonable.” But that authority is very limited, cautioned Finkelstein, who called the problem in Carroll County a “local issue.”
In a public meeting between IDEM officials and Carroll commissioners last month, the residents officially asked the state agency to dissolve the district. It was the first time such a request had ever been made to IDEM.
The officials said there wasn’t anything they could do.
Instead, the residents will pursue a lawsuit to force IDEM to dissolve the district, Robertson said. The suit, which has not yet been filed, will probably name both the sewer district and the governmental agency, she said. There could be up to 500 co-plaintiffs.
Some sewer supporters
Not all the residents in Carroll County or even Jefferson Township oppose the sewer district.
Jefferson resident Ron Kleckner said most of the area residents are actually in support of the sewer district. He called those residents the “silent majority.”
“It’s a necessary thing over here,” said Kleckner, who noted that opposing residents have valid complaints, but are in the minority. “I would say 90 percent of the people on the lake need the sewers. Some are for it; some are against it. But they all need it.”
The sewer district superintendent said the district is only trying to help.
“Generally speaking, we only go into areas that request us to come into them. We don’t pick up areas,” said Mike Darter, who declined to comment on the residents’ complaints because of the threatened litigation. “Our mission here it to clean up the lakes and the river within the boundaries of the district.”
Influence of developers
While the issue has not surfaced publicly, multiple sewer district opponents claimed the district’s expansion has been motivated by developers keen on turning the Lake Freeman area into condominiums.
According to the opponents, developers needed a sewer district in order to start building the condos, but didn’t want to foot the bill. So they asked the sewer district to lay the pipe, and to force the current residents to pay for it.
“It’s all about money,” Robertson said. “Anytime you look at a sewer district stretching into empty lots and empty fields, there’s an eye from developers.”
Last year, the first building was completed for Bridgeview Condominiums on Lake Freeman. Since then, a second six-unit building has been built, and five more buildings are planned, said Bridgeview owner Mary Row.
Nine of the 12 completed units in the sewer district-serviced area have already been sold, Row said.
Two years ago, a separate condo deal in the same region fell through. In 2006, the Meridian Asset Development Corporation pulled out, citing disagreements with the sewer district. The company didn’t want to pay tap-in fees to the district, according to a Carroll County Comet article in February of that year.
In a phone interview, Gardna denied that the district’s actions were motivated by development. Instead, he said developers came in after the line was laid to take advantage of the situation.
The superintendent added the development gave a great benefit to the Carroll government, which originally asked the district to come to the area.
“It brings up the assessed valuation of those pieces of property,” he said. “So more taxes are going to be collected by Carroll County, and they don’t have to do a thing.”
In general, sewer districts “can be very beneficial to economic development,” said Connie Stevens, the president of the Indiana Regional Sewer District’s Association. But Stevens added that development doesn’t usually happen unless a large group of residents wanted it.
District opponents acknowledged that development is good for the region, but said they wanted to see it done right.
“I like development,” Brown said. “But I want to see that the people that are reaping the benefit are the ones who did the work, took the risk and made the investment. I don’t want to see it on the backs of people that are not involved.”
Not unusual
Even as some residents complain about the unfairness of the district, experts pointed out that the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District is not much different than most other districts in the state.
The average cost for a customer of the Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District is a $1,000 hook-up fee and about $60 per month of service, Gardna said.
This is not out of line with the Indiana average, which is between $55 and $65, said Stevens. That cost analysis is the reason IDEM can't declare the district “economically unfair,” Finkelstein said.
Another complaint of Carroll sewer district opponents is the sewer district is governed by an appointed board of trustees, instead of elected officials.
But this too is typical, Finkelstein said. Of the 90 regional sewer districts in the state, a “very small percentage” have elected boards, she said.
“The reason is cost involved in an election,” Finkelstein said. “Usually when a sewer district is formed, people trust their officials to make good choices.”
According to Stevens, even the disagreement from some residents is common.
“There’s always an issue,” she said. “There’s never a district out there that’s 100 percent on board.”
Legislators’ role
The problems with the district come back to Indiana law, opponents said.
“It'’s a tremendous flaw in the law,” Brown said. “There’s no governance over the sewer board.”
The opponents said they’re currently lobbying the legislators to try to resolve the situation. If a law is indeed passed to add oversight to the district, the opponents would drop the lawsuit, they said. But Robertson said that resolution wasn’t likely.
The state legislature has taken up the issue in the past, said State Representative Don Lehe.
In 2006, Lehe helped propose two laws in response to the sewer district that were eventually passed, he said.
The first protected residents close to a sewer line but outside of the district’s boundaries from being forced onto the system. The second said property owners with a National Pollutant Elimination System permit couldn’t be made to join any sewer district.
The two laws helped the situation, Lehe said.
But no new legislation is in the works, said the representative. He said the government doesn’t want to take drastic action in fear that it would result in a loss of federal grant funding for the Indiana district.
Stevens said she would probably support a “fair and reasonable” law limiting the power of sewer districts to expand without approval. But Gardna said it would be more harmful than helpful statewide.
Regardless, opponents said the law is flawed and must be changed.
“There are a lot of loopholes in the law and TLRSD is excellent at finding them and using them against the people,” she said. “We’re not asking that someone take the sewer out of the ground. What we’re asking is for someone to be responsible for running the entire sewer district in a kinder, more people-friendly way.”
Brian Rosenthal can be reached at (574) 732-5148, or via e-mail at Brian.Rosenthal@pharostribune.com
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