TSC sells land near McCutcheon to Lafayette for sewer project
LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Tippecanoe School Corporation Board of Trustees approved the sale of a portion of land near McCutcheon High School to the City of Lafayette last week for the construction of a sanitary sewer force main.
The land is known as the “McCutchen High School Expansion Property,” formerly known as the “Carr site,” and is located on the north side of East County Road 500, on the west side of old US 231 and on the east side of the new US 231 right of way.
In exchange for the real estate sale, the Tippecanoe School Corporation will receive approximately $42,000. That money will be put into the corporation’s projects fund to be used to offset costs of other projects that TSC has, Superintendent Scott Hanback said, whether that be maintenance or future construction.
“The city’s sewage project is on 231 South, close to McCutcheon High School,” Hanback said. “All I know is they [the city] want to extend utilities to the southern part of the county, and they needed to buy a sliver of land that TSC owns along the highway to run their pipes underground.”
When asked about the project, Assistant City Engineer Dave Griffee said all questions would need to be referred to Lafayette Renew, the department that handles Lafayette’s current sewage projects, treatment plant operations and combined sewer overflows.
Lafayette Renew did not immediately respond to inquiries regarding the sanitary sewer force main or when they anticipate the projects’ start and end dates to be.
Force mains are pipelines that transport wastewater from the discharge sight of a pump to a discharge point, according to the United State Environmental Protection Agency. In short, they are underground roadways that wastewater moves through.
Harrison maintenance project complete
This project is different from a recent maintenance project that was completed Thursday at Harrison High School, Superintendent Hanback said. In fact, they are entirely unrelated despite similarities in wastewater movement.
Recently, work was being done at Harrison High School near the football field due to a pump that went down and caused wastewater issues, Hanback said. The repairs were handled by the school corporation and were deemed “fully repaired” the evening of Aug. 14.
“It would be like a sump pump going out in your basement and causing the basement to flood,” he said. “Only we are talking about our school’s restroom facilities and how you pump the wastewater from those facilities through your utilities.”
In other words, the broken pump caused wastewater overflow in the Harrison restroom facilities near the football fields and a repair was needed before those facilities could be used again.
The project took longer than anticipated due to replacement pumps being in short supply, Hanback said. The school corporation was forced to use temporary structures such as port-a-potties and handwashing stations while sourcing the pump. Harrison football players were impacted by the repairs and had to use the port-a-potties which raised a few concerns from parents, Hanback said.
With the repairs complete, he said parents can be assured that normal operations will resume. There are no delays in the high school football schedule and the field is ready for game day, he said.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: TSC sells land near McCutcheon to Lafayette for sewer project
