Commish address heated concerns in Freeport

By Cornelia Grace Harrison News-Herald Reporter

FREEPORT — Two county commissioners, Paul Coffland and Dustin Corder, attended the Freeport Village Council meeting on June 14 to give an update on the current sewer project.

“Construction has started,” Coffland began. “The schedule is through mid-2024 with final completion at the end of that year. We still need user agreements for 41 people.”

Coffland gave Mayor Larry Wells several blank user agreements for him to hand out and also gave him the list of 41 people.

“My name’s not on there,” said Wells. “But I signed my user agreement.”

“If you’ve signed one, let me look into it,” Coffland said.

Coffland said he wanted to make sure that the public understands what the user agreement is for. “If they do not sign the user agreement, then they do not get a tap. We will not go to their prop - erty. As of now, no one is paying for a tap. But if you have to come back later and tap in, you will pay for that tap. You’ll also have to pay for any damages to roadways and sidewalks,” he explained.

“I don’t know if anyone has seen some of these holes when they’re open, but some are 15-feet deep or more. This isn’t something you can rent a mini-hoe and put a line in over the weekend. We urge people to sign the user agreement, that way we can have it, get the tap put in for you, and it’s gonna save you probably $3,000-$5,000 down the road,” Coffland noted.

A resident in attendance asked for a more in depth explanation of what is meant by “tap-in.”

“It’s just like if you were to build a new house and wanted to tap into the water line, that’s the kind of tap we’re talking about.” Coffland said. “You don’t get hooked in, they’ll cut that lateral off of the main and put it onto your property. And it’ll vary depending on your property and how the line is. You will be responsible

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to decommission your septic and bring your home to that tap and hook in.”

Coffland then addressed some safety concerns with the construction equipment, “We’ve had some people walking up close to the equipment when it’s running, walking up close to the trenches. It’s dangerous,” he reported.

He urged the public to keep their distance from heavy machinery and from the workers.

He also talked about the issue of roads being a mess and said that it was an unfortunate side effect of the project. “They’ll do what they can to get things back [to normal] as soon as possible,” Coffland said.

This project has been many years in the making and several residents have expressed dissatisfaction with how the project is going so far. They are asking that more information be made available in the form of a town meeting. After brief discussion, it was decided there would be a town meeting at 7 p.m. on July 19 at the park pavilion.