It involved a federal clean water grant administered by the EPA, which will allow for the separation of combined sewers along Indiana Avenue.
Elected officials and community leaders gathered at the downtown library’s main branch on Indiana Avenue to hear Tom Dermody declare that just under $1 million of federal funding is now in the pipeline for improvements.
“We’re going to be able to put in new water and sewer separation and new infrastructure below the fantastic road that INDOT is going to put together,” Dermody told the crowd.
The sewer separation project is part of a $35 million overhaul of Indiana Avenue from Lincolnway to Kingsbury. City officials were anxious to make infrastructure upgrades while the roadway is being replaced.
“The road was going to be done, but we have a 100-year-old infrastructure problem that’s going to cost $100 million to fix,” Dermody said. “And we’ve started that project to make sure that’s happening around the city.”
“Since the early days of our administration, we’ve talked about the struggles of battling a rapidly aging water and wastewater infrastructure system,” Dermody added. “Our team has made it a priority to chip away at this problem one project at a time, and over the course of last several years we’ve done exactly that. This funding is critical to the next stage of this process.”
Wastewater Superintendent Jerry Jackson told HTNN that upgrading infrastructure under the main thoroughfare of Indiana Avenue will improve nearly 30% of the city’s combined sewer areas and make future upgrades easier.
The total cost of the project will be about $3.5 million. This portion, a $959,000 federal grant, will be offset by other utility revenues.
The federal funding was secured with the help of 1st District Congressman Frank Mrvan, who attended Monday’s announcement. He credited the tenacity of Dermody’s administration.
“His relentless pursuit in federal funding,” said Mrvan, “is what made being able to get this community-funded project eligible. I have to compete against 435 other individuals in Congress to be able to deliver on a project like this.”
$1 million may be a drop in the bucket compared to the town’s overall infrastructure needs, but Mrvan said, to downtown residents who have frequently dealt with sewer backups, it’s a big deal.
“Those families that are going through that,” he told HTNN, “that’s life-altering when people’s basements fill up with sewage water.”
Mrvan also stressed that better infrastructure will draw business to town.
“It doesn’t have the sizzle of a billion-dollar cloud data center,” he said, “but it makes sure the world knows that La Porte is a world of limitless possibilities.”
