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$4.3M loan to fund LaGrange Township sewer project

August 12, 2016

by Brad Nicken -- Chronicle-Telegram

LAGRANGE TWP. — Lorain County has received a $4.3 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to finance a planned new sewage system for the Pheasant Run housing development in LaGrange Township, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s office announced Thursday.

The money, which must be repaid over a 40-year period at a 2.25 percent interest rate, will be used to run a nearly 4.5-mile long sewage line from the 533-home subdivision to a wastewater treatment plant in LaGrange.

Lorain County Administrator Jim Cordes said although the loan won’t cover the cost of the village’s planned upgrades to its wastewater treatment plant, it will be used to fix numerous problems in the sewer infrastructure near Pheasant Run in addition to the new sewer line.

Cordes said the cost of the project, estimated at a little more than

$4.1 million, will eventually be passed on to the homeowners in the development, but the low-cost and long-term loan will keep those payments lower than they otherwise would have been.

“It’s good news for residents in the long run,” he said.

Once the improvements are made and the line is run, something he hopes will be completed in 2018, Cordes said the county will shutter the small wastewater treatment plant that currently handles sewage from the development.

“It’s not an easy project,” Cordes said.

The USDA’s Office of Rural Development wrote in its description of the project that that current plant doesn’t meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards.

Kaptur’s release also noted that the troubled plant was a the subject of legal action over the years, including a lawsuit seeking to halt the dumping of 542,000 galloons of raw sewage into Wellington Creek, a tributary of the Black River that eventually flows into Lake Erie. That lawsuit ended in a settlement in 2009.

“Untreated wastewater and sewage is a known contributor to recent algal blooms occurring in Lake Erie,” the release said.

Cordes said the county has spent years trying to figure out how to deal with the problem and still has some work to do before construction and repairs on the sewage system can begin. For instance, he said, Pheasant Run must be shifted from the county into LaGrange’s planning area, a move that must be approved by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency.

A call to the Pheasant Run Homeowners’ Association was not returned Thursday.

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