By CANDY NEAL
cneal@dcherald.com

HUNTINGBURG — Some residences on the south side of Huntingburg have issues when it rains heavy.

Some residents find that they can’t use or flush their toilets at times. Others have had their basement flooded.

Wastewater Superintendent Brad Coomer wants to figure out why that happens.

He wants to conduct a study on the main trunk line that runs along Second Avenue to Van Buren, to Bretz Street, to Washington and then to First Street. The line crosses a parking lot near the old street department to connect into the wastewater plant. The study would look at how much flow goes through the pipes.

“I'm trying to do a flow study to see what we need to do before we get this new plant built,” he said. “I don’t want to spend $20 million on the new plant, and then we get a big rain and people still can't flush their toilet.”

Coomer talked to the Huntingburg Board of Public Works and Safety last week about the study.

He proposed that Commonwealth Engineering conduct the study, which would cost no more than $13,900. Gripp Inc. would install the meters and needed manholes and monitor those; the rental and monitoring cost for two months of work would be $22,500. Gripp is the only company in the area that does this type of work, Coomer said.

Board members tabled the matter, stating that they wanted time to think about and review the proposal. They plan to take action at their April 1 meeting.

Gripp’s fee could be less than estimated, depending on when the big rain events happen. The sooner it rains heavily, the shorter period of time the meters will need to be rented, Coomer explained.

“You want to do it in the spring, because it all depends on rain events,” he said. “So if we have enough rain events in the first month, we won't need to use them in May, so we’d just pull them. It would be a lot cheaper that way.”

If the board approves the study on April 1, Coomer will get everything started by the following week, he said.