GREENFIELD — Hancock County and Greenfield have approved plans to pay for the extension of water and sewer lines to the site of the new jail.
The Greenfield City Council has created a new fund to pay for the construction of the project; the city will pay a contractor for the work and then be reimbursed by the county for a portion of the cost. The city charges availability and connection fees to all developers.
City engineer Jason Koch said the county asked the city to oversee the construction of the lines from connecting points, which will run about half a mile from the city limits to the jail property along U.S. 40 between County Roads 400E and 500E, and at the site of the future jail building itself.
Koch said most developers choose to hire a contractor directly to run water and sewer lines for new construction, but that the option to do so through the city is also available to private businesses.
“We would have done that with any other developer that would have asked,” he said.
The city will pay $730,586 for the installation from the budget of the water and sewer departments, while the county will pay $173,318. The county will pay for the construction of lines at the jail site itself out of its budget for jail project.
The extension of utilities to the site was a point of contention last year. The county commissioners argued that the city should help pay for the cost of extending water and sewer service.
Greenfield Utilities estimated at the time that the city would spend about $444,000 to extend the lines from existing connecting points.
Koch said those initial estimates "were probably way too low." The city received eight bids for the work and accepted the lowest one, he said; the average bid was around $1.2 million.
The work is currently under way and is being completed by New Palestine-based company Kindred Excavating.
Hancock County plans to spend approximately $38 million constructing the new jail, with an additional $5 million to $6 million to construct a new sheriff’s administration building at the site.