The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/315570
Golden Living Center now offers private, short-term, Medicare rehab suites at no additional charge that offer more convenience and privacy for both residents and their visitors. Golden LivingCenters offer services and programs to residents without discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, status as a Vietnam era veteran, qualied special disabled veteran, recently separated veteran, or other protected veteran, or source of payment. GLS-05500-10-AR Golden LivingCenter – Petersburg 309 W Pike Ave. • Petersburg, IN 47567 (812) 354-8833 http://www.goldenlivingcenters.com/petersburg.html Quality healthcare is just around the corner. Golden LivingCenter - Petersburg provides you with short-term, targeted rehab services through our Golden Rehab and skilled nursing care before returning home after illness or surgery. Our goal is to help you restore your strength and condence so you can get back to enjoying life! We also offer: • Physical therapy and occupational therapy on both an inpatient and outpatient basis • Private rehab suites • Dedicated Alzheimer's unit • Personalized treatment plans to meet individual healthcare needs Experience the Golden Difference today! Private Suites Now Available. 309 W. Pike Ave., Petersburg (812) 354-8833 http://www.goldenlivingcenters.com/petersburg.html If you're interested in this option, call us today for more information. wrapped to go. $ 1 sausage burrito Price and participation may vary. ©2014 McDonald's. M 4/14 46311.5 46311_EVANS_Burritos_5Petersburg.indd 1 5/13/14 4:06 PM Manning-McLain Mr. and Mrs. Bryan McLain, of Winslow, an- nounce the engagement of their daughter, Lindsey Lau- ren McLain, to James Hunt- er Manning, son of Wayne and Leslie Manning, of Pe- tersburg. Lindsey is employed at Il- lusions of Jasper, as a hair stylist. Hunter is employed as a trooper with the Indiana State Police. The wedding is set for August 2014. Formal invita- tions will be sent. 50th anniversary Wayne and Myra Tray- lor will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary May 23. They were both born and raised, and have lived most of their adult lives in Otwell. They have one daughter, Tina ( Joe) Esarey, who lives in New Albany, Ind. They have three grandchildren, Daniel (18), Hannah (15) and David (12). Wayne is retired, and likes gardening and yard work, playing cards and pool. My- ra is employed in registra- tion at Memorial Hospital in Jasper, and loves reading and playing cards. They attend Traylor Union Church of God in Otwell. There will be an open house in their honor at the Otwell Community Center Sunday, June 1, from 4 to 7 p.m. All friends and family are invited to attend. With this ring... By Ed Cahill Faced with a potential shortfall of receipts of ap- proximately $140,000 in 2014 and approximately $160,000 in 2015, Peters- burg city officials may have to raise water rates sooner rather than later. After presenting the Pe- tersburg Common Coun- cil with a generally rosy fi- nancial picture of the city's sewer works on Monday, May 19, Deen Rogers, CPA, of Umbaugh & Associates, noted that the city's wa- ter works has been losing ground since 2011. "Looking at your operat- ing fund, we've got the op- posite trend of what we had in the sewer works, where it's just been steadily de- creasing, from $225,000 at the end of 2011 to about $ 51,000 at the end of 2013," Rogers said. Rogers noted that it was anticipated that the water works would have net op- erating receipts of approxi- mately $151,000 in 2014, and approximately $129,000 in 2015. "When you take into con- sideration your payment on your bonds that are out- standing, capital improve- ments and replacements ... we see a decrease in cash and cash equivalents of $140,000 in 2014, $163,000 in 2015," Rogers said. "You would have to deplete any dollars in your depreciation fund. "If this all plays out and becomes a reality, you wouldn't be able to meet your requirements in your operating fund, either," Rogers added. "At the end of 2014, we show you should have $107,300. You would only have about $100,000 available for that fund. And then it would be depleted in 2015, when you should have $110,000 in there." Rogers pointed out that while the last rate study showed the city's water works had operating expens- es of $505,000 in 2008, it was expected that operating ex- penses would be $ 640,000 in 2014 and $ 685,000 in 2015. "Definitely, this is all pointing toward one thing – the need for a rate increase," Rogers said. Another indicator that a rate adjustment was neces- sary, Rogers said, is the fact that the city's operating fund was below the recom- mended balance. "You had $51,800 in there, and $107,000 is recommend- ed," Rogers said. "Every- thing else was adequately funded. I'm not sure where you're at now, but if your op- erating fund is falling below that $107,000 neighborhood, I would recommend making a transfer from your depreci- ation fund into your operat- ing fund to get that funded appropriately, because your bond ordinance places that requirement on the fund." Rogers interjected a lit- tle bit of good news into the meeting by reminding the council that its debt service obligations would decrease when the final payment on bonds issued in 2000 is made in 2019. "So five years down the road, you're going to go from paying $230,000 a year in debt service to about $ 95,000 a year," Rogers said. "So if we can get something in place to kind of bridge that gap – absent any other significant projects, which, who knows what may oc- cur between now and then – hopefully that rate adjust- ment would last you a while as that debt service drops off." Rogers' presentation led to a discussion regarding whether Petersburg want- ed to continue being regu- lated by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. "It definitely has its pros and cons," Rogers said. "The down side of that is it makes the process of adjusting your rates more expensive and it takes longer to get through that process." However, Rogers noted, Petersburg could choose to opt out of IURC review. "Most communities around the state have, par- ticularly communities of this size," Rogers noted. "There's a few around here that are still regulated that I can think of, like Princeton, Chandler, but there's just a handful. "What's kind of kept you regulated over time is your wholesale contracts with Pike/Gibson and Otwell," Rogers added. "I think it says in those agreements that you will be regulated." However, Rogers said, Ot- well opted out of being reg- ulated by the IURC in 1997, and Pike/Gibson had done so within the past few years as well. "If that's an avenue that you wanted to pursue, I sup- pose I would start with hav- ing discussions with those two entities and seeing if they're willing to renegoti- ate that contract, or the lan- guage in there, and would be willing to go along with that change," Rogers said. "Would they have to be in- volved at all? " council mem- ber John Melhiser asked. "I don't know," Rogers re- plied. "I think that becomes a legal question with their agreement." "If it were modified, they would have to agree to the modification," Mayor Frank Coleman said. "We would have broken the terms of the contract," city attorney Brian Mahoney said. "I'm not sure what that would lead to. But now that Pike/Gibson has opted out, which I think is a relative- ly new occurrence, I don't know why we couldn't ap- proach them and say you fi- nally got out, why can't we? " Asked what steps were re- quired to opt out of IURC re- view, Rogers replied that it came down to a vote of the city's "bodies here." "There is an opportunity for any of the public to ob- ject, and if they get enough signatures on a petition – and I don't know what that threshold is – they can force a voter referendum," Rogers said. "Princeton's attempted it a couple of times. They've got somebody down there that gathers opposition to it. "In my mind, it becomes a matter of trust," Rogers add- ed. "I mean, the folks have voted you in to run this, and I would think that by voting you in, they trust you. Why do they think that someone in Indianapolis needs to be overseeing it and kind of second-guessing the deci- sions that are being made on the local level? " Rogers admitted that be- ing regulated gives the pub- lic confidence that rates were not being adjusted "on a whim" but noted that the process of adjusting rates took longer and cost more. Coleman noted that the last time the city went through the process of ad- justing water rates it cost be- tween $70,000 to $ 80,000 to do so. "I can envision it being a little bit cheaper than that," Rogers said. "You're going to start at, at least $50,000. If you get a lot of objections, you get discovery and all the additional testimony. We just finished up with a client who had a big corporation inter- vene. They've spent over a quarter of a million dollars on their rate case. So it can definitely add up." Rogers pointed out that there was a third option that the city could pursue, called "small utility filing," a process available to utili- ties with fewer than 5,000 residential customers. However, he added, in or- der to be eligible, the majori- ty of the city's water receipts must come from residential users. "With you guys having a couple of wholesale users, we would have to see what percentage of your revenues are coming from them," Rogers said. While the process was less expensive – Rogers esti- mated it would cost between $10,000 to $15,000 – it had its disadvantages as well. "The downside of it is you're still exposed to some- one intervening, and if that's the case, then you're kind of back to square one and you've got to go through all those extra steps anyway," Rogers said. "I don't know that you're in a situation where you're going to have a user out there intervene. I would like to think that you wouldn't but you just never know." Coleman, noting how rela- tively inexpensive the city's water rates were compared to surrounding communi- ties, asked Rogers where the city's water rate should be. "We want to keep them as low as we can, but we al- so want to operate in the black," Coleman said. "Your average user, 4,000 gallons, leaving out the fire protection piece for com- parison purposes, you're at $16.88," Rogers said. "That's really pretty shockingly low to me. But, I mean, that's great. You've done some- thing right over the years and have been able to oper- ate efficiently, apparently. "All I can say is you need to have rates in place to ad- equately fund your revenue requirements," Rogers add- ed." I don't think you want to artificially inflate the rates just to be in the ballpark with everybody else. You just need to make them ad- equate to do what you need to do." In response to a question from Coleman regarding how long it would take for the city to opt out of IURC review, Rogers said that it probably could be done "pretty quickly." "I'm not sure how much time folks have to object," Rogers said. "I'd have to check into that. But absent any objections there, it could happen relatively quickly." "So we could opt out pri- or to starting this next in- crease," Mahoney said. "We would want to opt out, I think," Melhiser said. Council member Gary Leavitt agreed. "If they don't object, we need to get out as quick as possible, I'd say," Leavitt said. "That needs to start happening because there's no use belonging to some- thing that's costing us mon- ey if we don't have to." Mahoney suggested that the city open discussions with its wholesale custom- ers to determine what, if any, opposition it would be facing. "If they don't belong to the IURC, I don't see why they could force us to belong to it," Leavitt replied. In other business, the council approved a resolu- tion submitted by the Pe- tersburg Water Company – and subsequently passed by the city's Board of Public Works and Safety – to bor- row $27,920 from the sewer company to pay for repairs recently performed at the water plant. In addition, the council ap- proved Ordinance 2014-2, titled "Flood Hazard Areas for the City of Petersburg Adopting Flood Plain Man- agement Regulations and Repealing Existing Flood Plain Regulations." Coleman announced that codes enforcement officer R.C. Klipsch was in the pro- cess of obtaining easements for the I-69 sewer line exten- sion project. In order to move the pro- cess of obtaining easements along, Coleman and Klipsch obtained permission from the Board of Public Works and Safety, as well as the Common Council, to waive a 1986 ordinance that re- quires property owners lo- cated within 300 feet of a sewer line to hook onto it. "Unless we're mandat- ed by a higher authority, we would waive the tap-in fee when they want to tap in," Coleman said. "But we would not require them to tap in unless mandated by a higher authority." Assistant Fire Chief Jon Craig announced that the Petersburg Fire Department had received a grant of up to $4,000 from the Indiana De- partment of Homeland Secu- rity Foundation for the pur- chase of turnout gear. "I believe it's a 50 percent matching grant, so we get $4,000 if we spend $4,000, which would have been spent anyway," Craig said. "So we doubled our purchas- ing power with the grant." Klipsch informed the council that he had sent out 18 violation notices within the past week for grass and weeds. "I think, for the most part, all those will be taken care of," Klipsch said. "I really think this year there's on- ly going to be a couple that we're going to have to reg- ularly maintain, which is a little bit of an improvement over last year because of property changing hands and various things." Klipsch also praised City Services manager Gary Mc- Candless and part-time city worker Alan Tegmeyer for the work they have been do- ing on the city's curbs, es- pecially along Hwy. 57 and Hwy. 61. "That being said, I wish people would try to throw their grass clippings back onto their own private prop- erty," Klipsch said. "It cre- ates a mess and actually is a violation of our city litter or- dinance. We've never done much about that, but I would just encourage people to try to help, because these guys are doing a great job trying to make it look better, and I think it does." Shortfalls may compel Petersburg council to raise water rates soon Pregnant... or think you are? Call:1-877-257-1084 or Locally Call: 1-812-354-2814 • Free pregnancy testing • Free counseling and info. on pregnancy options. • Confi dential counseling for women & men who are suff ering from post-abortion syndrome. • Residential Care • Health and assistance referrals. • Training and education. • Assistance in getting baby and maternity clothes washpcc@sbcglobal.net www.washingtonpregnancycenter.com The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, May 21, 2014 A-9