All’s not well in Cicero’s search for enough water

By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com

“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” – from “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Well, Cicero is running a bit dry these days. The town on the lake has dug multiple test wells without hitting a water source that could help ensure future growth. A few miles away, Hamilton County is about to start piping countless gallons of water from Sheridan to 276^th Street to help with the expected growth of the U.S. 31 corridor.

If Cicero doesn’t find water soon, its growth could stagnate.

Ironically, all the water in Morse Reservoir belongs to Citizens Energy Group and primarily supplies Indianapolis.

Hamilton County Commissioner Mark Heirbrandt told The Reporter the county decided to use some of its $65 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money to create a utility district to help provide infrastructure along the U.S. 31 corridor in northern Hamilton County to fuel future growth.

Heirbrandt

“We are negotiating with INDOT to get the interchanges put in at U.S. 31 at 236^th and U.S. 31 at 276^th,” Heirbrandt said. “You know growth is going to happen in that area. We also learned that the Indiana National Guard is coming and consolidating four facilities into one up at 276^th. We are trying to get water and sewer up there to them and create this district up there and have a little bit of control over what happens in terms of development in that area.”

For years, Heirbrandt has attended quarterly meetings between the county and the Town of Cicero. Among others, Heirbrandt said he brings Marty Wessler from Wessler Engineering to those meetings.

“Marty is the designer we’ve hired for the water and wastewater treatment facility we’re putting in,” Heirbrandt said. “When we put RFPs [Requests for Proposal] out for companies to be able to provide water, we got quotes from Indiana American Water and we got quotes from Citizens Energy Group. We got really good pricing on the water because we are going to be a large user. During those discussions, Cicero brought up that they were having some difficulty finding water on the west side. They tried several different places unsuccessfully and were looking for water.”

According to Heirbrandt, the county offered an option that he thought would help both Cicero and the county. Rather than moving water from the Sheridan wells to the 276^th Street and U.S. 31, they could move water from Noblesville at a higher initial cost to the county, but also with the added benefits of increased capacity for the northern area and an option to bring water to the border of Cicero.

“Indiana American Water came up with this plan to take water from Noblesville all the way over on the west side of Cicero,” Heirbrandt said. “We could stub off that and put a water meter on that. Then if Cicero wanted to buy water from Indiana American Water, they could just go direct from them. They wouldn’t have to go through us. We weren’t going to mark it up. They could buy it wholesale.”

Former Cicero Town Councilman Dan Strong was on the town council at the time the county’s option was presented to Cicero.

Strong

“There were numerous things involved there,” Strong said. “The county is doing their utility district. They offered an option that potentially we could buy water off them. There was a timeline in which Cicero needed to make a decision so we didn’t hold up their project. At that time, we were still looking for potential water sites and the town is still doing that. At that particular time, we were not interested in purchasing water until we had looked at all the available options to the town.”

According to Strong, the costs would have included a price per gallon, additional piping and other factors that would have contributed to the final bill.

“I think there was a lot of information that was not known at that time to make a fact-based decision,” Strong said.

Heirbrandt confirmed that Cicero’s time to make a decision was limited.

“We have a tight deadline to get water and sewer up to the Indiana National Guard,” Heirbrandt said. “They are going to start to build at the end of this year. We’ve got a time crunch.”

According to both Heirbrandt and Strong, Cicero decided to continue to look for their own water. They told the county to do what they needed to, even if that meant running water from Sheridan instead of Noblesville.

Since that was the less expensive option, that is the route the county chose.

Today, Cicero is still looking for test well sites and Strong, while no longer on the council, is still involved.

“My current role with the town is that I do special projects for them,” Strong told The Reporter. “That’s one of the reasons I’m still involved in some of this. One of the main things I’d like to get done as long – as the town allows me to continue to be involved – is getting our wastewater treatment plant expansion done, and I would also like for us to have an additional water plant, not just to help our current needs today, but also to allow for some future growth.”

While Cicero has sufficient water to meet its needs today, this town wrapped around Morse Reservoir needs more if they want to continue to grow.

“I think we still have some availability, but I think it would be a limited availability for potential growth at this particular time,” Strong said. “We have the capacity to meet our current needs. If three or four homes came in or a couple businesses, I don’t think those would be issues, but we would run into the issue if we had a major subdivision that wanted to come in. We would not have the capacity for that today.”

Until they find another water source, either through wells or buying it from an outside source, Cicero’s development is almost tapped out.

“I’ll be honest with you, when we started working on this, I never thought we would have not found water by now,” Strong said.