(La Porte, IN) - The gloves seem to be off now in the fight against an effort by the City of La Porte to annex a residential and industrial area.

 

For well over a year, Mayor Tom Dermody has spearheaded a push to annex the 39 North Conservancy District.

 

At Monday night’s city council meeting, 39 North Conservancy District Attorney Shaw Friedman urged city officials to renegotiate a water agreement.  Friedman said the considerable growth within the district from the city providing water has been a positive for both sides.

 

“I’m just as confused as anyone as to why the city would abruptly choose not to come to the table after 26 years of an amicable relationship with good results for both friends,” he said.

 

Under the agreement, the city provides water to customers in the district along Indiana 39 between the city limits and Indiana Toll Road.

 

The district owns the water lines.

 

However, the city alleges the lines no longer have capacity to provide an adequate supply of water to fight a major fire because of higher demand on the system from increased development since the conservancy was formed more than 20-years ago.

 

In August of 2021, the city council set a deadline of May 4th, 2025 for the district to improve water capacity or the agreement will expire.

 

Friedman said the district is attempting to obtain grants to help pay for construction of a water tower to increase water pressure.  He also said more water pressure is only needed to service future growth.

 

“Let us be perfectly clear.  The district’s water system is able to adequately serve current residential, commercial and industrial customers,” he said.

 

Friedman said more water pressure is not needed to fight a major fire because that service is already provided by the Center Township Volunteer Fire Department.

 

Dermody said the district keeps dragging its feet on a matter it should have been addressed a long time ago, but the city is already in a position to pay for upgrading the water system in exchange for annexation.

 

“The only plan they have is to ask us for our plan,” he said.

 

He believes customers in the district will be served better from the city’s fire department tapping into a system that would provide a more reliable source of water.

The volunteer fire department relies on tanker trucks.

 

Dermody feels tanker trucks carry a safety risk, though, because they hold only so much water and more have to keep coming in during a major fire to maintain adequate supply.

 

He also said future growth in the district is not possible because of a city ordinance prohibiting new utility customers from outside La Porte’s corporate boundaries.

 

The purpose of the ordinance adopted in 2016 was to encourage future development to migrate from just outside the corporate boundaries to inside the city limits.

 

State law requires municipalities to have majority support of property owners within a targeted area.  Dermody said the city has been talking with customers in the district about the water issue to determine which way they want to go.

 

“We have to ask the question we ask residents, that we ask business owners.  What is the value of the 39 North Conservancy District now?  Let’s not wait until something happens,” he said.