The Indiana Medical Licensing Board on Thursday lifted the emergency suspension of a Fort Wayne oncologist who in January was charged with leading police on a high-speed chase while having illegal drugs in his system. Dr.FORT WAYNE – A long-simmering dispute between Fort Wayne and Huntertown boiled over this month when the town sued the city over its sewer rates.
But what Fort Wayne charges Huntertown for its waste is only a symptom of the true problems: Who should control the utility, and the town's fears the city might soon surround the small but growing community, stifling its growth and economic viability.
Huntertown is standing up for its independence and wants the ability to have a say in its future, Town Councilman John Hidy said.
Fort Wayne has deemed that Huntertown has no sewer capacity left, he said, limiting new home construction or new businesses from coming to the town. Huntertown officials don't believe the city should be able to dictate who opens for business in the town.
They also worry the city will use the expansion of its own utility lines to annex ground west and east of the town – boxing in the community and preventing the town from expanding its tax base.
"We know the city of Fort Wayne is going to be arguing against us. They want us to stay hooked into them. They want the control," Town Councilman David Rudolph said.
Huntertown, like most municipalities in Allen County, ships its sewage to Fort Wayne to be treated. The town, however, wants to end that relationship by building its own $10 million sewage treatment plant, giving town officials direct control over utility rates and the town's growth.
The town will go before the Allen County Board of Zoning Appeals next month to discuss its plans.
But building another sewer plant is not in the best interest of the entire community, Fort Wayne officials believe, saying a regional utility provides better and cheaper service for everyone.
The town used to pay a bulk rate for the sewage sent to Fort Wayne, but that contract expired, and Fort Wayne began charging the town much higher retail rates this year.
This prompted Huntertown to sue Fort Wayne, saying the previous agreement had not expired. The city last week responded to the lawsuit, saying it tried to work with the town over the rate dispute, but Huntertown owes nearly $130,000 in delinquent fees.
Matthew Wirtz, deputy director of engineering for Fort Wayne City Utilities, said federal and state regulators have been pushing for regional systems since the Clean Water Act in the 1970s.
At that time, most communities in Allen County had their own sewer plants, but federal money was provided to link them to Fort Wayne's utility.
Bruno Pigott, assistant commissioner for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said while no laws require smaller communities to connect utilities with other cities, there are benefits.
Regional utilities between communities of any size often reduce bills to customers by spreading the cost of plant improvements over more people, said Pigott, who oversees the state office of water quality. He said regional utilities can also provide environmental benefits because they are better able to fully staff the plant. He said some of the smallest sewer plants are only checked by employees weekly.
Those concerns don't always trump the desire for local control, Pigott added, as some communities want to set their rates without needing permission from anyone else.
New Haven, for example, can't unhook from the city because of the high costs needed to build a plant that would serve the county's second largest city. But New Haven officials don't like paying for Fort Wayne's repairs, trucks and pipe maintenance. New Haven has those same costs for its own equipment and pipes, Mayor Terry McDonald said.
As a wholesale customer, New Haven pays reasonable rates, but New Haven customers are still helping foot the bill for Fort Wayne, McDonald said.
Utility growth
Part of the concern of Huntertown officials is City Utilities' growth plans throughout the county.
The city recently approved extending utility lines to serve the Beckett's Run subdivision just south of Huntertown. The project includes expanding those lines to serve future growth in the area.
Fort Wayne is also constructing a massive multimillion-dollar sewer line dubbed the Upper Ely Interceptor along the Martin drain from Interstate 469 northwest toward Huntertown. Wirtz, with City Utilities, said the project would allow the city to provide another sewer connection to Huntertown in an effort to provide better service.
The project isn't just for Huntertown, he added, noting it will give the city the ability to connect to about 1,000 homes in northern Allen County so they can be removed from septic systems.
The connection for Huntertown would not be cheap to the town, however.
Rudolph said it could cost $9 million to $10 million to build a pipe underneath I-69 and east of the Parkview Hospital property to connect to the city's planned interceptor project – roughly the same price to build a new sewer plant in Huntertown.
However, the city previously offered to help subsidize the work if Huntertown agreed to let Fort Wayne provide water to the town.
But there are no guarantees the city would grant additional capacity to the town with the new connection, Rudolph said.
The interceptor project is part of the city's $240 million federally mandated program to reduce the amount of raw sewage going to area rivers during rains. The program has forced the city to raise sewer rates 86 percent through 2013.
The city would collect money from Huntertown ratepayers to pay for the city's sewer separation. But Huntertown officials don't want to help pay for that project, which affects only Fort Wayne-owned pipes and infrastructure, they said.
Hidy believes that is one of the main reasons Fort Wayne wants to keep Huntertown as a customer.
Because of that, town officials weren't surprised that City Utilities argued against the sewer project during an earlier BZA hearing and expects the city to try and argue that the BZA should reject the project, Hidy said.
"They are playing their strategy, which basically is to box us into a corner to come back into the city's system," Hidy said.
Wirtz said the city plans to present options for Huntertown residents with City Utilities at the zoning appeals meeting next month.
Hidy believes the city is trying to delay approval for the town's wastewater plant. If the project were delayed too long, the town would have to remain connected to Fort Wayne.
The uncertainty of Huntertown's plans could also mean changes for Fort Wayne, Wirtz said, noting if the town breaks away, the city could reduce the size of some of its planned projects.
More than sewers
The growth concerns of Huntertown spill beyond sewer and water service, and into whether City Utilities' reach is really an attempt by Fort Wayne to take over the northwest corner of the county through annexation.
Ted Nitza, a growth consultant for City Utilities, said Huntertown's previous sewage contract had annexation protections. It prevented the city from annexing anything that was a part of Huntertown's utility area. It also prevented Huntertown from annexing anything in the city's utility area – generally preventing either side from annexing across Carroll Road.
While requiring people who connect to City Utilities to waive their rights to oppose annexation has been a decade-long tradition, Nitza said, people who connected to Huntertown's system had to sign no such waivers with Fort Wayne.
Wirtz said the utility is interested in its own growth where it makes sense, but it has no control over annexations.
"Annexation is by the city and we don't control that," he said, referring to the city's civil administration. "We're not actively out trying to take over Huntertown."
But Huntertown wants to annex and could serve areas east of Coldwater Road if it had its own plant to add capacity, Rudolph said.
"They are rapidly coming up the Coldwater Road corridor. They don't make any bones about that," Rudolph said of Fort Wayne. "If they come up Coldwater or later if they make issue out of the west side toward Churubusco, all of a sudden we could find ourselves surrounded by Fort Wayne."
Running sewer lines to homes and businesses is the conduit for annexation, he said.
"If it were to encapsulate the town, then we become land locked and that's it. Why should it be just the city of Fort Wayne to have the ability or authority to expand its area? Why doesn't Huntertown have the same right?" Hidy said.
