Lakeland Regional Sewer District – November 19, 2025 Regular Meeting Minutes
CALL MEETING TO ORDER / REPORT OF MEETING NOTICE PROVIDED
Lakeland Regional Sewer District (LRSD) Board of Trustees met at the District’s Administration Office, 5002 East 100 North, Warsaw, Indiana. The monthly general meeting date and time were posted and advertised as required and was called to order at 6:00 PM by Jim Haney.
Present: Jim Haney, Mike DeWald, Mark Koehler, Jack Bonewits, Rosa Ritchie, and Bob Hookman; Cullen Reece (arrived 6:08pm)
Absent: n/a
PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD
None
APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS GENERAL MEETING MINUTES & EXECUTIVE SESSION MEETING MINUTES
A draft of the October 15, 2025 regular meeting minutes was submitted to all Board members via email on October 17, 2025. The final version was posted on Boardable on November 4, 2025.
Motion by Jim Haney to approve; second by Mark Koehler.
Motion carried by voice vote of: 6 Yeas; 0 Nays; 0 Abstains
TREASURER’S REPORT AND OTHER FINANCIAL MATTERS
Mike Dewald overviewed the Cash and Funds Balance Matrix – October 31, 2025, denoting the funds grand total of $2,598,388.
Mike DeWald overviewed the Management Cash Budget of January 1, 2025 through October 31, 2025. Mike noted the addition of a couple new line items in this statement. To better match revenue and expenses and for a more complete picture of all the maintenance expenses, he has included a maintenance expense line item for purchases to be funded from the Asset Replacement Fund and then at the end of the report a line item to show reimbursement to the Operations & Maintenance fund from the Asset Replacement fund.
The following October 2025 financial reports, prepared by Krohn & Associates, were presented by Mike DeWald: Unaudited Schedule of Cash Receipts and Disbursements; Monthly Analysis of Funds Balances; and Monthly Analysis of Cash and Investment Accounts.
Motion by Mike DeWald to approve; second by Jack Bonewits.
Motion carried by voice vote of: 6 Yeas; 0 Nays; 0 Abstains
The Monthly Claims Approval form of November 2025 was reviewed by Lichelle Parker.
Motion to approve the payment of monthly claims grand total of $90,289.89 by Jim Haney with second by Cullen Reece.
Motion carried by voice vote of: 7 Yeas; 0 Nays; 0 Abstains
Board members affixed their signature approval to the Monthly Claim Approval Form.
ASTBURY MONTHLY REPORT
PUMP/PANEL INVENTORY, CUSTOMER PROTOCOL REMINDER
The LRSD Treatment System Operations Treatment System Operations Report of November 14, 2025 was emailed to Board members by Astbury Water Technology, Inc. Matt Rippey reviewed key aspects of the report and provided clarifications to Board members’ inquiries.
Mike questioned the statement in the operations report that noted based on the service calls involving pump replacement and other documents, the life expectancy of a Barnes grinder pump is around 9.5 years. Matt clarified that this represented all Barnes pump in their system, that there is a bell curve, and that there should not be a flood of pump failures in the next year or so. Currently the District has replaced approximately 11-12% of its pumps, so that does not seem to support that the District’s pumps average life span would be 9.5 years. The asset replacement fund budget was increased for 2026 to accommodate moving the average life span of the pumps from 20 to 15, however, if the life span should be moved to 10 years, then that would translate to an even larger need in the asset replacement fund. To increase the fund is going to mean an increase to the customers’ monthly charges. Jim asked Bob Hookman to meet with Tim Hare (Astbury) in the next couple weeks, to understand how he came up with that average and to better understand what life expectancy the District should use for budgeting the asset replacement fund.
Jim had questions on several work orders, which Matt provided information on. He also noted that Aaron Burris, who had been leading the collection team, is no longer with Astbury, so they are working to resolve some issues that were open when he left.
Matt updated the Board that 35 properties have been inspected as part of the GIS mapping/inspection project. For the next meeting, Astbury will provide a list of items that have been fixed, along with replacement costs of those items. The Board will decide based on that information what costs will be passed along to customers for replacing and repairing items. Astbury will also plan on what items they need to order to have on hand for the anticipated repairs.
Lichelle reviewed the list of District action items from the monthly work orders.
CLARIFICATION OF BID RECEIVED FOR LAB EQUIPMENT
The District had provided a public notice of sale to try to sell a couple pieces of Hach lab equipment. At last month’s board meeting, a bid from Core and Main was opened and approved by the Board. However, after further clarification from Core and Main, there was some misunderstanding in their interpretation of the notice, and the bid they submitted was to sell lab equipment to the District, not to purchase it. Further guidance from Carson states that since the District did not receive any bids if the District wishes to pursue trying to sell the equipment, they can do so through a state approved auction site or to another District. Core and Main has not responded to additional inquisitions. Matt suggested that the Alliance of Indiana Rural Water has a classified ads section where the items can be listed to try to sell to other Districts/municipalities, etc. The Board suggested starting with this avenue to see if another District is interested in the equipment.
NON-COMPLIANCE SECTION 15.4.2 OF THE DISTRICT’S USE ORDINANCE – BARBEE HOTEL
The results from the October 24, 2025, sample from the Barbee Hotel were 107 mg/l, which is over the District’s limit. The Barbee Hotel has not responded to Strombeck Bros about their August 2025 recommendation to jet the line between the grease trap and the grinder station. This was recommended based on a visible high-water mark within the grease trap. Mr. Shankster was concerned that debris accumulation in the line to the grinder station was causing slow draining from the grease trap and potentially causing sustained high levels in the grease trap and allowing the grease to flow over the barrier.
Motion by Jim Haney to assess the Barbee Hotel a $2500 fine for the October 24, 2025, violation, and for Astbury to begin weekly sampling; second by Mark Koehler.
Motion carried by voice vote of: 7 Yeas; 0 Nays; 0 Abstains
The District will draft a letter to Barbee Hotel notifying them of the fine and increased testing and have Carson review before sending.
ADOPTION OF ORDINANCE NO. 2025-05 SALARY ORDINANCE
The Salary Ordinance committee is proposing a 5% increase in pay for the District Administrator, Lichelle Parker.
Motion by Jim Haney to adopt the 2026 Salary Ordinance 2025-05 as submitted; second by Mike DeWald.
Motion carried by voice vote of: 7 Yeas; 0 Nays; 0 Abstains
2026 BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE
A proposed schedule of the 2026 meeting dates was provided to Board members; (the meetings continue to be scheduled for the third Wednesday of each month).
Motion by Jim Haney to adopt the 2026 Board meeting schedule as submitted; second by Jack Bonewits.
Motion carried by voice vote of: 7 Yeas; 0 Nays; 0 Abstains
2026 DISTRICT OBSERVED HOLIDAYS
A proposed schedule of the 2026 Observed District Holidays was provided to Board members; 10 holidays in total.
Motion by Jim Haney to adopt the 2026 Observed Holidays as submitted; second by Cullen Reece.
Motion carried by voice vote of: 7 Yeas; 0 Nays; 0 Abstains
INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR COMMITTEE
Nothing to report.
ENGINEERING UPDATE
Nothing to report.
PURCHASING UPDATE
As of November 14, 2025, there were two open POs with Astbury; one for the GIS Mapping project (202530) and one for UV lamps (202533).
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Nothing to report.
PROPERTY OWNER CONNECTION STATUS
Lichelle reviewed the Property Owner Connection Status report, updated through November 14, 2025.
One of the properties listed under the non-connected section, 29 EMS T9 was sold at a tax sale last October 2024, however, the property was redeemed on October 24, 2025. Lichelle was contacted by Allen Goodoien (Ms. Gray’s son) with several questions regarding the property’s status and what their options were for the significant liens and past due balance on the account. This property was under a septic exemption until August 2024. The District allowed Ms. Gray an extended period until November 30, 2024, to obtain the second 5-year exemption, however, that was not completed. The account began being charged $100/day failure to connect fees and monthly sewer charges on December 18, 2024. The county allowed the property to be redeemed for only the amount of past due taxes on the account as of the spring installment; this amount did not include any of the District’s liens. Chris Nausbum (Carson LLP) does not think that per the statute, the county should have allowed the property to be redeemed for what it was, however, he is not sure they will, or can, change it at this point. One of Mr. Goodoien’s questions was if the septic exemption was still an option; the Board agreed that they had already offered an extension last year to obtain the extension and it was not done, and are not interested in granting any additional extensions.
Motion by Jim Haney to authorize Carson LLP to send the property owner(s) a letter reminding them that they are still in violation of the District’s Ordinance and failure to connect fees will continue to be assessed to the maximum amount, however, if the property is connected to the District’s sewer system on or before April 30, 2026, the District will waive all failure to connect fees; the monthly sewer charges will remain on the account to be paid; second by Mark Koehler.
Motion carried by voice vote of: 7 Yeas; 0 Nays; 0 Abstains
Ed & Judith Allen obtained a new construction connection permit in July 2024 for their property at 3973 N SR 13. The Allens are ready to run the sewer lines for their property, however, they have limited options of where to connect. The closest force main is to the west of their property and ends in the cul-de-sac of B5A. The Allens had previously received verbal permission from the property owner of 30 EMS B5A to bore through their property to tap into this force main, however, the property changed ownership in February 2025 and the new owners will not give approval, and neither will the property owners of 29 EMS B5A, making this force main inaccessible. The other option for the Allens is to run their line to the north and connect to the force main that runs along 400 N, however, the distance from the edge of their home to the force main is 304 feet. There is a section of Indiana Code 13-26-5-2(8), that states in summary the District does not have authority to require a structure to connect if the property is not adjacent to a body of water and if the structure is not within 300’ of an accessible sewer line.
Motion by Cullen Reece to waive the Allen’s connection requirement at 3973 N SR 13 due to inaccessibility to a sewer main line; second by Jack Bonewits.
Motion carried by voice vote of: 7 Yeas; 0 Nays; 0 Abstains
Carson LLP will follow up with the Allen’s attorney with the Board’s decision. Lichelle also questioned about their $120 permit application fee which was paid July 2024. Jim stated that the fee should be reimbursed.
OTHER ITEMS THAT MAY COME BEFORE THE BOARD
None.
ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn meeting was made at 7:25PM by Jim Haney with second by Cullen Reece.
Motion carried by voice vote of: 7 Yeas; 0 Nays; 0 Abstains
Submitted to Board by Lichelle Parker, District Administrator
Reviewed by Board Secretary, Rosa Ritchie