Vincennes USB General Manager Kirk Bouchie says they are looking forward to seeing several projects started late last year reach completion. He says that includes construction of the City’s New Water plant and Wellfield as well as the phosphorous removal project.
Bouchie told members of the Vincennes Utilities Services Board Wednesday that both of those projects are on schedule and due to be completed sometime this fall.
Bochie says they also plan to start on phase two of the McKinley Avenue Stormwater Project. That project will include extending a storm water basin to ease potential flooding from Mantle Ditch.
Also on the water department’s to do list includes completion of several levee related projects and the complete replacement of storm water and sanitary sewer lines in the Old Orchard area.
In other business from Wednesday’s meeting…
The Vincennes Utilities Services Board voted to write off a total of 76-Hundred dollars in water and sewer charges from 2013. General Manager Kirk Bouchie they try to do everything in their power to collect the unpaid charges through the courts and by placing liens against an individual’s property. Bouchie says the write-offs are about half of what they did last year and represents only a small percentage given the overall financial health of the department which took in 2-point-8 million dollars last year.
Also the U-S-B voted to pay Blankenberger Brothers just over 33-thousand dollars for the relocation and installation of new storm water lines as part of the Portland Avenue Closure project. Bouchie says the money is part of a reimbursement the city received from Vincennes University as part of work related to widening the closure to Kimmell Park. While the work was underway, Bouchie indicated there some old storm lines under Oliphant Drive that were in danger of collapsing. The lines ran parallell to the rail track used by Vincennes Steel. Rather than tear up the street, Bouchie says they were a to put in a new line at another location saving the city considerable expense.