Construction soon will get underway on a sewer project to encourage growth in Seymour’s Eastside Industrial Park, officials said.
The city’s board of works recently awarded the job to Mitchell and Stark Construction of Medora for $1.24 million. A total of three bids were submitted.
Plans for the project call for a lift station to be built at the northeast corner of Hartsell Drive and Killion Avenue.
Sewer lines will be installed extending to nearby undeveloped property the city continues to market to prospective companies.
That property is owned by Seymour Industrial Corp.
“It will ensure we are 100 percent shovel ready,” said Randy Hamilton, director of the city’s Water Pollution Control facility, which manages the city’s sewer collection and treatment system.
Without infrastructure in place, Hamilton said most companies will look elsewhere to build.
“This way if someone was looking here, we can say that everything is ready to go,” he said.
Although materials have been delivered to the project site, construction won’t begin until April 18, Hamilton said.
The project is being paid for using available funds from $15.5 million in sewage works revenue bonds issued in 2014 for the south side sewer project.
Those bonds will be repaid with sewer utility funds which are generated by residential, commercial and industrial sewer customers, over a period of 20 years.
Construction on the south side sewer project has yet to begin as the city continues to try to acquire all the property needed for the sewer system expansion which will include the installation of a 60-inch sewer main.
Of the more than 20 parcels needed, Hamilton said all but one has been purchased. The properties vary in size with some being agricultural, Hamilton said.
The project, which will expand the city’s sewer infrastructure to the south is a couple of years behind schedule, but isn’t any less important, he added.
“We need it to happen, because it’s the only direction we can grow the city,” Hamilton said. “It will open us up to more housing and commercial opportunities.”
Hamilton said the project should also increase property values in the area as having sewer infrastructure available makes property more marketable.
Currently, the city has a self-imposed sewer ban in the affected area, meaning no new sewer hookups are being allowed east of Burkart Boulevard at this time.
When built, the sewer line will intercept and divert sewage flow from East Tipton Street, taking it south along Sandy Branch Creek to a proposed regional lift station at East County Road 340N, allowing the city to discontinue the use of five or six existing lift stations.
Sewage flow would then continue through a proposed force main from the lift station going west toward South Walnut Street on its way to connecting with an existing line that would carry it to the city’s water pollution control plant near the East Fork White River.