No one objected during a public hearing about a proposal to seek a grant providing a community water line to serve the Garden City Mobile Home community, located off State Road 11.
Following Monday’s hearing, the Bartholomew County commissioners gave their approval to seek a $500,000 federal Community Development Block Grant for the project, administered by the Indiana Office of Community and Urban Affairs.
The only person to speak during Monday’s hearing was mobile home park owner Dana DelSignore, who said the process of bringing city water to his community has been ongoing since the 1970s.
“This has been a long process,” DelSignore said via video conference. “Hopefully, we’ll see some fruition and conclusion of a lot of people’s efforts.”
Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz also emphasized this project, which involves the mobile home park, the Columbus City Utilities and the commissioners, has been in the works for a long time.
Tentative plans call for the installation of a 4,750-foot water main to be hooked up to city water near the county fairgrounds to achieve the initial connection. If funding can be obtained, a 12-inch water main will run from near the existing Water Treatment Plant No. 2 on Spears Street, continue north through an agricultural field along a future extension of Southside Drive until it reaches Garden Street, according to the project description.
From there, the water main will run below an easement acquired from Columbus Regional Health System before utilizing an existing conduit under the railroad tracks to reach the mobile home park, the plans state.
Most of the Garden City community are now served by shared wells where contamination has been a concern for several years.
In 2018, federal environmental officials said they would spend $320,000 to clean up trichloroethylene (TCE) in the plume under Garden City, and to continue with filtering water at several private wells. TCE, which is an industrial solvent, has been known to be a cause of cancer.
The mobile home park serves 46 to 47 additional residences with city sewer, but obtains its drinking water from wells. Last August, the owners were able to get an additional acre of property at 960 Jonesville Road rezoned, so an additional seven mobile homes could be added if city water service is provided.
Besides the $500,000 grant from the CDBG Wastewater and Drinking Water Program, local officials also propose to spend an additional $604,000 in non-CDBG funds on the project that will be obtained through other sources, the project description stated.
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The grant to help finance a waterline to Garden City will be submitted to the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs on or about June 25.
If there are no delays or complications, the county will learn whether the grant request has been approved in August.
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