Meeting of the Sewer Committee Monday January 9, 2006.

The meeting was conducted in the sales office. The purpose of the meeting was to hear from Mr. Dennis Siders of the Midwest Assistance Program . He came to discuss his services with respect to conducting an income survey as part of the process for obtaining grant money for the proposed sewer project.

Listed below are the main items discussed.
  1. MAP is paid by government grants, we do not have to pay for their services.
  2. MAP is strictly an independent agency to help communities get thru the process.
  3. He stated that our median income goal has been set at $39,043.
  4. The figure of $39,043 is set from the census of 2000.
  5. If the independent survey shows that we fall below that level then there is a good chance that we will be able to obtain a 20% grant.
  6. If we are above that level, we will still be able to obtain a loan at a favorable rate.
  7. Mr. Siders recommended that we send a letter to USDA rep Donna Martin stating that we did not agree with the census for the following reason: The initial data was taken from too small of a sample and not representative of our community.
  8. We should also state how we the new income survey will be conducted
  9. This would be conducted independently by Midwest Assistance Program under the control of Mr. Dennis Siders. He said that he would use control numbers on a map of our watershed district which would correspond with the same number on a list of all households. This would ensure that all households were contacted and that they sent back their survey.
  10. A map showing ALL households in the district would need to be obtained.
  11. Those household not responding after a specified period of time would have to be contacted again as the income survey has to include all those who will be serviced by the sewer system.
  12. This letter should be sent as soon as possible as it was important to have this information before the April election.
  13. The bond issue would be voted on by all registered households in November.
  14. Mr. Brunjes would be contacted for the detailed map.
  15. A discussion on various types of sewer systems followed. Mr. Siders said that our preliminary engineering report should list at least 3 or 4 different type of systems for us to study. Most of the discussion was on the merit of the "Step System" versus the "Grinder System". More information needs to be obtained on the Step System as it seemed to be an easier system than the grinder.
  16. Mr. Siders will send us the names of local communities that have recently installed sewer systems and Larry Kimmel and Lou Harting will visit them and find out their opinions.