CORDRY-SWEETWATER — The Cordry-Sweetwater Conservancy District Board of Directors has decided not to charge residents more than $900 a year for each lot they own through a proposed assessment.
At a Sept. 24 special meeting of the board, area six board representative Pat Sherman announced that the board was planning to approve an assessment that would result in lot owners paying no more than $275 per freehold.
The assessment would would fund the maintenance and operation of the district’s works of improvement, which include roads, security, and taking care of the lakes and nature and recreation areas.
Sherman also clarified the definition of “freehold” the board will use for the assessment. A freehold would equal a person who owns multiple lots under the same name. Property owners will not be required to “marry” multiple lots as previously discussed to avoid paying an assessment on each lot.
“You would pay one assessment, whatever that number is going to be, but that is going to be somewhere under $275. We have to do some math to make certain and show you how we come up with that number, and we intend to have by the Oct. 20 meeting,” Sherman said.
On Aug. 18, the board approved the first reading of a resolution to change the way it collects the conservancy district’s assessment. Going forward, it would not be based on the value of each parcel, but would be one flat rate — as much as $972, according to a legal advertisement — no matter how much each property was worth.
On Sept. 15, more than 150 residents attended the board’s meeting to express concerns about the proposed change. That was the first public hearing on the resolution. The second one will take place at the board’s meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
“That was an estimate that was based upon 90 percent of our budget. We are required to put that number in there,” Sherman said on Sept. 24 about the $972.
He added that there was nothing in the approved resolution that would indicate the board would charge $972 annually for the assessment, which would have been paid in two installments, according to the legal advertisement.
He further explained that the resolution allows the board to separate the budget between a fixed amount and an ad valorem if that’s what is decided. The budget for the district is $1,895,889, Sherman added. “That is what our intention is, to collect no more than that,” he said of the district’s levy which funds the budget.
Currently, taxes in the district are collected by ad valorem, where the budget is divided among parcels as a ratio of the value of one parcel versus the value of the total of all parcels, according to a frequently asked questions document the board put together.
Under an equal assessment, the budget is divided equally by the total parcels in the district. Taxes would still be collected on an ad valorem basis, but the amount will be reduced after money is collected by the special assessment, attorney Roger Young explained on Sept. 24.
“You pay your assessment to this district according to the value of your freehold. That will stay the same. The number won’t stay the same, but the way it’s taxed will stay the same.”
Residents could see a drop in their taxes in the district because the money brought in from the special assessment will be taken off the total budget; then, the budget would be divided among the freeholders.
“You probably know what the assessed value is and that is how you’re being taxed. That is not only from the Brown County tax, but it is also our district tax, so that will not change. That is how currently you are being taxed. That’s why the disparity is happening,” Young said.
At the Sept. 15 meeting, it was explained that the reasoning for the assessment was due to a disparity in the collection process which has become worse over the past few years due to inconsistent assessed values. This means freeholders pay from about $20 a year to well over $4,000 a year.
On Sept. 24, Sherman also said that the assessment will help reduce the ad valorem taxes in the district.
“It costs a lot of money, obviously $1.89 million, to operate our district. But the intention of the board is we will not collect any more money than that, so whatever number it comes to from this assessment, we will reduce the amount of money on the ad valorem accounts,” Sherman said.
The board is expected to approve the resolution at the Oct. 20 board meeting along with the budget for 2021. The board is also expected to approve a resolution codifying the amount to be charged for the assessment, Young said.
“That resolution will be delivered to the board with a blank number and the board at the October meeting will fill in that blank. The resolution will contain a reference to the statutory definition of freehold, so that will be codified in the resolution as well as the number once the board adopts it,” Young said.
The freehold definition the board will adopt is the same one in the Indiana Code for establishing a conservancy district, Young said. That was something that another attorney, Alan Hux, who was representing two freeholders at the Sept. 15 meeting, had mentioned.
“This is how government makes good decisions by making a decision, throwing it out, listening to what the public says, then acting accordingly, having been informed as to what the wishes of the citizens are,” Young said.
The board also wants to establish a finance committee with members representing on-water, off-water, buildable and non-buildable lots, along with two members from board in non-voting roles who can offer input on such matters like the assessment. The plan is to vote on that committee at the Oct. 20 meeting, Sherman said.
“We want this to be something that we can say, ‘This is a committee of freeholders who put this together’ that will be presented to the board and the board will take action on it,” he said.
County involvement
The board also wants to create a Cordry-Sweetwater Advocacy Council to go to the Brown County Council on behalf of the district to ask for more money from property tax dollars the county collects from the district.
{span}During the Sept. 15 meeting, Sherman said that the conservation district’s assessed value makes up about one-third of the total taxes assessed in the county.
“We want to do to try to better our relationship with Brown County, then advocate for our district on things we need that are different from Brown County,” he said.
Sherman said he would like to see that council also advocate for zoning in the district at the county level.
“We hear this a lot, that there are people who just don’t like the way some of the properties in this conservancy district look. We don’t want junked cars in the driveway — nobody wants that — so I think we should be able to set up a zoning district that is our own district; it doesn’t relate to anyone else in Brown County,” he said.
Representation
The board answered questions from the audience after presenting the update.
One woman questioned the lot ownership diversity among the board members.
Board member Jay Nogan reiterated that that the board is made up of members who live either part-time or full-time on the water and others who live full-time off the water.
The lot owner also asked if it was possible to move the meetings to the weekend since some people who might want to serve on the board cannot make the drive to the CSCD during the week for meetings because their home there is a second home, with some living three hours away.
“I am not disagreeing with you, but the next complaint will be, ‘I don’t want to do it on Saturday because I want to be out on the lake on Saturday.’ I am all for that and I am here to hear options,” board member Matt Petersen said.
“Tuesdays don’t work for you and Thursdays don’t work for someone else. … If people want to get involved in this, do it. I’ve learned a lot and it’s been a lot of stress. For the last six weeks, I’ve done nothing but work on this.”
Nominations for the CSCD Board are to be done between Oct. 24 and Nov. 1.
Members representing areas five and six will be up for election this year, with both of those board member terms ending in January. To get nominated, five people from a resident’s area must sign a petition, and if two people in the area have petitions signed, then there will be an election.
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On Sept. 24, the Cordry-Sweetwater Conservancy District Board of Directors approved a water rate increase on first reading and is expected to give the increase a final approval after receiving public comment on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
The 24.48 percent across-the-board water rate increase will result in the minimum rate of $23.56 increasing to $29.33. Water customers in the conservancy district are charged additionally if they use more than 3,000 gallons of water in increments of up to over 50,000 gallons. The increases for those increments range from an additional $2.89 to $1.80.
The increase is a result of the conservancy district being served with a 36-percent increase from the water supplier Prince’s Lakes, said Josh Hawley, the conservancy manager and superintendent.
Customers also will be charged a $5.89 surcharge on water bills from November through April so the district can recoup the money it’s been using to cover the increase from Prince’s Lakes which went into effect in May as it did a rate analysis.
“When we found out about the exact increase, we hired a rate analyst to come in, take a look at all of our financials, take a look at our water law, take a look at everything we’re doing water-wise and try to determine how much of that rate increase could we absorb and how much would ultimately need to be passed on to the consumers,” Hawley said.
The increase will take effect with November bills if formally approved in October.
Hawley told residents at the meeting that the conservancy district also worked with engineers to better prepare for another rate increase from Prince’s Lakes: By finding leaks that are not easily apparent.
“We’ve had multiple leaks that we‘ve discovered mostly through accident of areas that had potentially been leaking for years. Nobody knew about it because the water never surfaced to the top,” he said.
“The service lines are what go from the water main to your water meter. Those are our big time leaks.”
The water system was installed in 1969. Prior to that, the district pumped water from both lakes through its own treatment facility.
“It was determined that because of the amount of lots being sold and the volume of water, that we needed to purchase our water from Prince’s Lakes. We’re under that contract for the next 24 years, so we don’t have a whole lot of say on this,” Hawley said.
“Their contract is written to the point of, as long as they give a rate increase to all of their customers and all of their wholesalers, then they can give it to us.”
Hawley said that in 2014, water loss in the district was around 60 to 65 percent. Right now, the water loss average is around the low- to mid-40-percent range. “Loss” is water that the district won’t get paid for from customers, such as through leaks.
“That’s about as good as we can get with what we have right now,” Hawley said.
He said it’s difficult to use the tools the conservancy district has to find leaks when searching 2,300 acres, so the district worked with engineers to install 13 meters to better narrow down areas where leaks exist. “We can figure out how much water is going through each area versus how much water is being used by the houses in that area. Now, instead of one big area, we’ll have 13 areas,” he said.
The cost of that project will be $255,000.
“That is pennies on the dollar for what this rate increase is from Prince’s Lakes. It’s a very small percentage of the percent increase we’re giving you guys,” Hawley said.
“What this will do is it will enable us in the future to lower that water loss, so that when Prince’s Lakes raises their rates again, we can absorb more of it this next time.”
The last time Prince’s Lakes raised its rates was in 2017, and that was a 16-percent increase to cover their bills, but Hawley told the crowd on Sept. 24 that this increase is going to cover projects Prince’s Lakes is doing to help the district, like redoing mains and putting in dual-purpose pipes and pumps, “so that they don’t have to call me every three weeks to tell me we have to shut our pumps down and hope that we have enough in the tank to hold it for however long it takes for them to fix whatever problem they are working on.”
The $255,000 water meter project also will include giving the conservancy district office the ability to hear water meter alarms instead of when maintenance workers go to read meters.
“Let’s say if two gallons of water an hour go through your meter for three straight days, it will send an alarm. We don’t get that alarm here. We only get that alarm when we go out and read the meters. … We try to do it every week through the season. If we’re super busy or understaffed, like we’ve been most of this year, it’s probably about every two or three weeks. You could potentially have a leak go on your property for two or three weeks at a time with nobody knowing,” Hawley said.
The reading ability will be upgraded to where it can be read in the office every 15 minutes. “We can collect the readings of the houses in these district areas at that very moment, so we know exactly how much we’re water losing in any given area. That will be a huge benefit to you as customers, because then worst case scenario is you have a leak that starts at 4:01 p.m. on Friday and we don’t hit that magic button until Monday morning, so it goes for three days,” he said.
Residents did not object to the water rate increase, with some only asking clarification questions.
The increase also includes a $204.22 increase for the fire hydrant fee in the district. One resident asked for the justification for having that fee and why it was being increased.
“To my knowledge, it’s always been in the law that the district may charge a fire hydrant fee. The statute allows that. How this district came to do it, when this district started doing it and how they determined what it should be, that I don’t know,” CSCD board attorney Roger Young said.
Hawley said there is a fire hydrant within 1,500 feet of every lot in the district, which affects the homeowners’ insurance rating.
“I don’t know if it’s a replacement fee as much as it is a fee to have it for your insurance purposes, to have the service,” Hawley said.
“When a fire is fought, 5,000 gallons are pumped. Nobody pays for that except it’s charged to the overall water bill. I assume that levy helps cover that,” board member Jay Nogan added.
The board approved the water rate increases unanimously on first reading. The increases are expected to be formally approved at the public hearing on Oct. 20.
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