JEFFERSONVILLE: Clinic takes long route to city sewer

By MELISSA MOODY
Melissa.Moody@newsandtribune.com

May 03, 2008 01:05 am

— Since it opened in December, the Southern Indiana Treatment Center’s methadone clinic on Charlestown Pike has had its share of problems.
Tapping into the Jeffersonville city sewer line is only the most recent in a line that started on opening day with a lack of adequate parking, public-safety concerns and resident outrage over the location of the addiction-recovery clinic.
A recent attempt by the clinic to connect to the city sewer extension was temporarily halted. Some neighboring residents and businesses had not provided the clinic with right-of way access.
“They came out here with the intentions of trenching a line across the front of my property,” said Jim Whyland, owner of Triangle Machinery, which is next door to the clinic. “There’s (public) utility easements, but no easement for sewer lines for a private entity.
“I don’t think anybody wants them crossing their property.”
The clinic had looked at two separate paths to connect to the city sewer, said the clinic’s Regional Director, Tim Bohman.
“There were two different directions we were trying to take it — one shorter,” he said.
The clinic ended up opting for the long route, which didn’t require obtaining the rights-of-way the shorter route needed. Bohman said he expects the hook-up to be completed in a matter of weeks.
The project to connect to the city sewer is privately funded, and will not use any city funding, said Larry Thomas, communications director for Jeffersonville.
Excel Excavating — which was awarded the contract for the project — is receiving no public funds for the work, Thomas said.
“On April 24, a $7,675 commercial tap-in fee was paid to the Jeffersonville Sewer Billing Office,” he said, in a message posted on The Evening News forums. “So long as they are going by the book — and particularly since the Clark County Health Department is encouraging the tap-in — the Jeffersonville Sanitary Sewer Board cannot deny the tap-in if it is being paid for with private funds.”
The clinic has been using a temporary holding tank to store sewage, increasing pumping to alleviate the use. The Indiana Health Department issued a permit for the temporary tank, and the Clark County Health Department began encouraging the clinic hook up to the city sewer line after it received complaints that the tank was overflowing.
“We’re occasionally checking on it to make sure it doesn’t overflow,” said Mike Meyer, with the department. “That is not a permanent solution for waste disposal. (The state) couldn’t have allowed that solution on a permanent basis.”
The state health department gave the clinic a permit extension on the temporary holding tank in March, extending the deadline to June 30. A letter granting the permit extension specified that the “connection to the sewer extension should occur before that date.”