The Lafayette City Council signed off on a new sewer project and a rate increase for property owners to pay for it.
The $33 million in improvement projects involves separating storm water and sanitary sewers from the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds area along 18th Street up to Kossuth Street. It also involves a new storm sewer down Earl Avenue.
Mayor Tony Roswarski says the city does not like increasing fees, but it’s necessary.
"We are in a position where it is a judicial agreement signed by a judge. It's a federal mandate that has to be met. We are on a timeline and this particular project has to be completed by 2015."
He says preventing raw sewage from entering the Wabash River during heavy rains is the right thing to do as well.
Roswarski also says the work is needed.
"There's no place for the water coming off Sagamore Parkway, that general direction, to go, because once it gets to Earl Avenue, it's full and so the water backs up."
He says the lack of capacity with the Earl Avenue sewer also is the reason there is flooding in homes in the Columbian Park neighborhood, and on 29th to 31st streets.
Sewage rates will increase in three stages – going up 15% February 1st, an additional 10% in January, 2014, and a 4% hike in January, 2015.