Elkhart's water service proposal at Ivy Tech keeps flowing

By Tim Vandenack, Truth Staf

tvandenack@etruth.com

GOSHEN -- The Elkhart County Redevelopment Commission backs the proposal to provide $1.1 million in county funds to extend water and sewer service to the new Ivy Tech Community College campus taking shape east of Elkhart.

Now it's up to the Elkhart County Council, which will consider the matter on Oct. 3, to make a final determination.

Elkhart County commissioners propose using $1.1 million from the Northeast Corridor Tax Increment Finance District to extend city of Elkhart water and sewer lines from a nearby apartment complex to the Ivy Tech location. County leaders have long talked of providing some sort of assistance to Ivy Tech to aid development of the $20 million campus, and this would be it.

The favorable recommendation came at Thursday's meeting of the redevelopment commission. Members offered little comment on the Ivy Tech project, but had plenty of questions about the potential upshot to adjacent development brought on by extending water and sewer lines to the area.

County Administrator Tom Byers said the proposed diameter of the lines would permit extension of water and sewer service even further than now proposed should additional development occur. He said he's negotiating terms with the city that would let the county charge a fee to tap into the lines in such circumstances.

The new Ivy Tech campus, taking shape on an undeveloped plot north of C.R. 18 at Old C.R. 17, would replace the existing one at Elkhart Industrial Park. The school would eventually pitch in $100,000 to the water/sewer project, reducing the county's liability to $1 million.

The Northeast Corridor TIF fund -- generated from property taxes paid mainly by industrial operations in the zone -- currently contains $1.25 million, according to County Administrator Tom Byers. The state will be returning an additional $515,878 to the fund that the county had tapped for a different project.