Oakwood, Sunnybrook sewer work to start

The long-awaited and eagerly-awaited starts to the municipal sewer connections for the Oakwood and Sunnybrook Addition started Monday for Oakwood and May 23 for Sunnybrook.

That was reported at Thursday’s meeting of the Adams County Regional Sewer District Board by Ben Adams, the district’s engineer, who also noted that “punch lists,” which itemize final things to be finish up, are being done in six other areas: Clem’s Lake, Preble, Peterson, Linn Grove, Barrington Woods, and along a stretch of CR900N.

Adams and board member Jim Franz, who lives in Oakwood, said a meeting was held on May 10 with most of the Oakwood homeowners and “generally speaking, it was pretty happy,” said Adams,

There was a discussion of how to handle five houses just south of Oakwood, the residents of which are interested in being hooked up to the rural sewer system, but the overall cost appears to be prohibitive.

Longtime district employee Barry Scherer said it would cost several thousands of dollars to make those connections and Adams added that just putting in a pumping station would be at least $250,000, since those houses are too far away hydrologically from Oakwood.

County attorney Mark Burry suggested that if owners of other homes farther south along US 27 wish to get connected, those five could be added, but he pointed out that because of the sloping lowness of the land toward Monroe (the geographic center of the county), at a certain point, it would make better sense to link some rural residences north of Monroe to that town’s sewer system instead of going north to Decatur, as Oakwood and Sunnybrook are doing.

Acting district superintendent Larry Oberley reported that restoration work, such as grass seeding, will start this week in the six areas listed above.

Fiscal news

There were 6-0 votes, with member Josh Zimmerman absent, to approve these items:

• Paying $106,485.72 in claims.

• Paying payroll of $13,159.79.

• Requesting reimbursement of $ 484,994 from Indiana’s State Revolving Fund.

• Paying Oberley an amount not to exceed $8,000 to cover monetary loss in his membership in the state’s Public Employees’ Retirement Fund ( PERF) because he was mistakenly placed in the lower-level option when he was hired in February of 2021.

It was explained that Indiana’s PERF has two plans: PERF-My Choice and PERF-Hybrid. Oberley was put into My Choice, which pays 7.3% lower than Hybrid. However, once a person is in one of the two, that person cannot switch to the other plan.

Steve Bailey, a member of the board and a banker here for 40 years, said Oberley was fiscally harmed in two ways: first, there were no contributions into his retirement fund from February to November last year (the month in which he was formally enrolled in PERF) because the sewer district was not previously part of the PERF system and, second, the My Choice plan’s lesser benefits.

“I think we owe Larry money. Larry thinks we owe him money. Mark [Burry] thinks we owe Larry money,” said Bailey.

Jane Kaverman, the district’s billing and accounting clerk, said she will contact the PERF office in Indianapolis today (May 13) to see if Oberley can be placed in the Hybrid plan.

• Bailey said he and Kaverman have been working to straighten out the district’s computerized records and found that the $80,000 income the district is listed as having over the past couple of months is too high due to a software problem, which they will get ironed out soon.

• Bailey also will see if Decatur certified public accountant Becky Cochran or some other firm can assist Kaverman by taking over a few tasks, such as making regular bank account reconciliation reports.