GREENFIELD — The president of the county commissioners says he equates ongoing jail utility discussions between Hancock County and Greenfield to that of the NBC game show Deal or No Deal.
“No Deal,” John Jessup told the Daily Reporter on Tuesday afternoon.
Hours earlier, the Greenfield Board of Works and Public Safety approved an amended memorandum of understanding between the city and the county, which proposes extending water and sewer utilities to the edge of the property where the county plans to build a 440-bed jail to cost up to $43 million.
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Greenfield Utilities will spend about $444,000 to extend water and sewer lines from existing connection points near Jaycie Phelps Road to the anticipated location of a nearly mile-long road that will get built north from U.S. 40 to the proposed 20-acre jail site, located between County Roads 400E and 500E. The city utility department will pay for the project with ratepayer fees, not property taxes.
The city and the county have been working to determine the location of the utility lines and the price of the project over the past few months. The county commissioners wanted the city to pay for the lines to run within 50 feet of the jail building, while Greenfield officials say a city ordinance instructs utilities to take the lines to the edge of a property. The developer pays for utility work inside their property.
According to a document provided to the board of works by Mike Fruth, director of Greenfield Utilities, running the water and sewer lines inside the property would’ve costed the city an additional $232,000.
Jessup, president of the Hancock County Board of Commissioners, said he doesn’t agree with the city’s decision to not pay for the sewer and water lines extending onto the county property, commonly called the county farm. He also said the city doesn’t partner well with the county. Last August, most of the Greenfield City Council and Mayor Chuck Fewell publicly said a new jail shouldn’t get built in downtown Greenfield. That stance, as well as a push from the Hancock County Council, shifted the proposed jail location outside of the city, he said.
“It’s always Hancock County giveth; and Greenfield taketh,” Jessup said by phone on Tuesday.
Fruth and Gregg Morelock, city attorney, discussed the utilities MOU with the commissioners in a meeting last week.
County Commissioner Brad Armstrong said he thought the city would work with with the county “beyond a normal developer.” He, like Jessup, said the city was instrumental in “forcing” the jail outside of downtown Greenfield, a jail that houses many Greenfield residents arrested by city police.
“You’ve offered nothing extra,” Armstrong said. “We’re just the same as anybody else building a building after we’ve been kicked out of trying to add on contiguously to our campus.”
Marc Huber, commissioner, said the county is “under the gun” in determining the site’s utilities. The commissioners looked into building a sanitary sewer package plant and water treatment plant on the property, but that would cost $3 million more than hooking up to Greenfield Utilities’ system, according to estimates presented to the county’s jail committee in January by RQAW, the jail’s design firm.
Huber said the original MOU draft didn’t include the exact cost of the utility extensions. It also stated that the city would run the lines within 50 feet of the building, but Morelock told the commissioners that was included by mistake; he misunderstood past discussions between Jessup and Fruth.
“It’s repulsive to every taxpayer of this county that you guys are doing this,” Huber said. “We want a number. We want to know exactly what your plans are. We don’t want no hide and seek. None of this stuff left up for interpretation.”
Jessup said the board of commissioners doesn’t want to partner with Greenfield, but the site’s utility options are slim. The county also intends to bid out the jail project by the fall.
If the commissioners don’t agree to the MOU, Fruth said the city will still extend the lines. Greenfield Utilities don’t need an agreement with the county to install lines along U.S. 40 since it’s within their water and sewer territory.
“I would like for us to be able to reach an agreement, but I’m not exactly sure that’s possible,” Fruth said. “Nevertheless, I still feel we need to make that commitment to extend those utilities to their south property line.”
While the city could’ve chosen to extend the lines to run within the county’s property, Fruth recommended that the board of works not spend an additional $232,000 in utility user fees.
“The reason I suggest that is because it’s the water and sewer customers that are bearing these costs; It’s not additional taxpayers,” Fruth said. “That project that they’re doing, it is beneficial to everyone in the county, but it’s my personal opinion that everybody in the county should pay their ‘fair share.’”
The county will also need to pay an availability fee and connection fee for the utility extensions, which depends on the size of the water and sewer mains and the property’s acreage. Fruth said the city chose to not charge the county an availability fee based on the nearly 120-acre piece of land, and instead only priced the fee for the 20 acres set aside for the jail, a difference of about $320,000.
Jessup, however, said if the county has to pay for the availability fee for just the 20 acres, the water and sewer lines aren’t that “available” with the building located about 1,000 feet away.
Fruth said the county’s availability fee — priced at $64,0000 — means the utility department’s net cost of the extensions is about $380,000. The city last month also agreed to a $26,000 contract with Indianapolis-based Cleland Environmental Engineering Inc. to design 1,700 feet of 12-inch water mains along the north side of U.S. 40 and a 2,170-foot 8-inch sewer line on the south side of the highway.
The commissioners meet next on July 16 in the Hancock County Annex, 111 American Legion Place.
