Second public hearing held for Winamac master utility plan

A second and final public hearing was held by the Town of Winamac on Dec. 8 to provide citizens with an opportunity to express their opinions on the recently completed master utility plan. Mike Kleinpeter, of Kleinpeter Consulting Group LLC, explained that the plan was paid for using Federal Community Development Block Grant funds from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA). Aaron Crow, Director of Water/Wastewater at RQAW-DCCM, presented their findings and recommendations at the hearing. Kleinpeter said that his consulting group was the grant administrator who assisted the town last year in applying for a $90,000 OCRA grant, which they received. The grant looked at the water, sewer and stormwater system as well as the needs of the utilities over the next five to 10 years. He explained that they went through a request for qualifications process, where they interviewed several firms. Ultimately, they selected RQAW-DCCM to work on the master utility plan. Crow said that they met regularly with the town and various town representatives, who highlighted a set of projects with each of the three utilities. He noted that a lot of the survey results and letters that were written to help get the master utility study funded in the first place were taken and incorporated into a lot of the projects.