HELMSBURG — In a meeting already punctuated by debate and walk-outs, two of the three members of the Helmsburg Regional Sewer District Board resigned on Jan. 6.
President Denise Broussard announced her resignation near the end of the meeting, and longtime member Harrietta Weddle followed that announcement with one of her own.
For much of the hour or so preceding, the board and audience had debated sewer charges regarding tourist homes and home stays, and possibly changing the ordinance in the future.
The other member of the three-member board, Jenny Austin, joined the meeting by phone, as she was out of town.
Broussard’s four-year term on the board was to end in December 2021.
Weddle’s four-year term was scheduled to end in December 2020, but she had told the audience earlier in the meeting — after audience member Erika Bryenton had challenged Weddle’s ability to vote — that she was still a member because the county commissioners hadn’t yet appointed anyone to replace her. The commissioners were to meet at 2 p.m. that day; this meeting started at 10 a.m.
After a short conversation about having to postpone the election of officers until Austin was back in town, Broussard said she was going to resign from the board effective Jan. 7, the next day. She said she had taken another position in the county and it would conflict with her service on this board. She briefed Austin on what she’d need to do to get authorization on the board’s bank accounts.
After that announcement, a woman approached the table wanting to turn in a payment, and Weddle said she couldn’t take it because people were saying that she wasn’t on the board. However, Weddle had voted on everything that had happened during the meeting so far. The woman left still holding what she was trying to hand in.
Then, Weddle made it official, saying she was going to resign, too, because it was clear to her that the commissioners weren’t going to reappoint her. Weddle said that she’d asked twice for a board application from the county and had never received one.
At their 2 p.m. meeting, the county commissioners appointed Brian Webb to serve a four-year term, replacing Weddle, and temporarily appointed Kyle Myers to serve in Broussard’s spot until at least Feb. 17, 2021. Between now and that date, the county commissioners will accept other applications for that board position.
HRSD board members must be customers of the Helmsburg sewer district.
Webb has been a customer for many years and owns rental properties in Helmsburg; Myers is renting space from Bryenton, said county commissioner Diana Biddle.
Myers could be appointed to serve the rest of Broussard’s term until the end of 2021 if the commissioners choose to go that route at their meeting on Feb. 17, or another candidate could be chosen.
In June 2019, Broussard, Weddle and the board’s attorney, John Young, started the process to make the HRSD board elected by the voters in the sewer district instead of appointed. Austin opposed that effort, as did several customers of the utility who filled a small meeting room at the library. The county commissioners opposed the change. The board is still appointed by the commissioners because the Indiana Department of Environmental Management has not approved the change yet.
In October 2019, Austin presented a petition to the commissioners to have Broussard and Weddle removed from the board. It contained the names of 45 people representing 22 properties in the sewer district. The petition alleged that Broussard and Weddle were “actively trying to block, or to complicate enough to stop, any improvement possibilities for HRSD,” such as joining forces with another sewer district or studying options for efficiencies.
After the petition started circulating, Broussard and Weddle did agree to enter into a study with the Brown County Regional Sewer District related to each district’s resources. Both had brought up concerns about the HRSD taking on debt if they were to work on a joint project with another entity.
In November, Austin told the BCRSD board that the HRSD board was willing to talk about helping provide sewer service to Lake Lemon and Bean Blossom, but that joint meeting was never scheduled.
Broussard started serving on the HRSD board in 2018 to fill a vacancy created when her mother, Virginia Allen, resigned.
Weddle has been a member of the board since the sewer district was founded in 1996. She’d mentioned in past meetings that she’d kicked in her own money over the years to keep it going.
Before either Weddle or Broussard announced she was going to resign, Broussard thanked Weddle for her many years of service in case she didn’t get reappointed.
“Well, of course. Whether or not she is reappointed she deserves to be thanked. She’s been loyal,” Austin said.
Tourist rental debate
Much of the meeting was a continuation of a discussion the board had in November about charging properties with more than one kitchen a sewer bill for each kitchen. Broussard said the ordinance already reads that way and they needed to follow through with it now that they know at least one property is not paying that way.
Allison O’Shea, Austin’s daughter, spoke against it at both meetings. She and her husband have a home stay, which allows them to rent a portion of their house to overnight guests. That portion also contains a kitchen. Broussard was saying that the O’Sheas needed to pay a second sewer bill because of this home stay. Each residential sewer bill in Helmsburg is $92.50 per month.
The O’Sheas’ property is the only one that this rule currently affects.
O’Shea, who was out of town and attending the meeting by phone, argued that they shouldn’t have to pay a whole other sewer bill when their rental space is in their house and doesn’t have a separate address, connection or sewer pit, and was vacant nearly 300 days last year.
Bryenton, who owns a tourist rental and apartments, backed O’Shea’s opinion. She said she had no problem paying an extra sewer bill for a tourist rental that was a separate building, but not for a room in a person’s house.
Broussard insisted that this was nothing personal; the board had recently learned the O’Sheas had a home stay and they needed to follow the ordinance as written.
Broussard said she’d done research into how Nashville Utilities deals with these situations. Austin said she had talked to Nashville, too, and the way each of them described what they’d learned from Nashville was not the same.
Bryenton asked them to hold off on a vote about this until the commissioners chose a board member for Weddle’s seat.
Broussard asked her to hold her comments until the board did its business.
“Can we have some conversation before we vote?” O’Shea asked.
Broussard said they’d had enough conversation.
“You’re lying about the facts,” Bryenton told her.
Broussard then told her that her comments were being held to two minutes and she was getting close to her limit, and she was going to ask her to leave if she couldn’t abide by that. Bryenton said she couldn’t kick her out.
By that point, two members of the audience had already walked out; one later returned.
Bryenton said she wanted to see Nashville’s policy on sewer bills and tourist rentals in writing, but Broussard moved for a vote on whether or not they were going to follow the ordinance and charge anyone with two kitchens a second bill. The vote was 2-1 with Austin against.
Broussard later invited O’Shea to work on changing the ordinance.
After the vote, O’Shea said she knew the board wanted to get more sewer customers, but she didn’t think this was the way to go about it, charging people more who are already paying customers. “This actually turns people off,” she said.
