{"id":35582,"date":"2026-04-09T18:56:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=35582"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:56:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:56:52","slug":"major-construction-project-set-for-decatur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/09\/major-construction-project-set-for-decatur\/","title":{"rendered":"Major construction project set for Decatur"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major, $21 million construction project is expected to begin in Decatur this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project, approved by Decatur City Council and the board of works last September, will remove all lead service lines throughout the city and replace numerous aging water mains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projects of this type are mandated by the federal government to target lead service lines across the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bids for the project are scheduled to be opened in May, with work likely to start in July or August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome major construction is expected to begin in July or August and may continue into next year,\u201d Mayor Dan Rickord told city council at its meeting Tuesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the work is going to bring numerous street closures and even some detours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 323 lead service lines are targeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, the project will be divided into four parts, the mayor explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will make some major improvements to our city,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the public will be kept abreast of the work through the city’s website and other social media, plus public meetings will be scheduled. Also, he noted, homeowners in affected areas will be notified well in advance of work coming to their area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FINANCING: A loan-grant agreement calls for a $5.5 million grant (no payback) and an interest-free loan of $2.5 million for the city, along with a $10 million low-interest loan at 2.898% and a $3 million loan at a rate a little higher but still lower than through the open market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the loans may be spread out over a period of 35 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grant and interest-free loan will be provided by Indiana’s State Revolving Fund (SRF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local rate hikes are also part of the deal. An increase of $4.40 for minimum users took effect January 1 and an additional $6.60 will be added for a total of $11 for the water line of a utility bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city originally was moving toward a $12.5 million project to get the overall lead-removal project started. But consultant Ben Adams \u2013 hired by Decatur \u2013 was told by SRF representatives that if the city went as high as $18 million, it would receive the grant and the interest-free loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So local officials decided to accept the offer and also go all the way to the $21 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c (Doing) the $18 million was the only way we could get the grant, \u201c Rickord said at the time of approval. \u201cThese numbers are crazy; I know they are high. But we have to do this; we are being mandated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou will never get it any cheaper than it is right now,\u201d Adams remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adams also said at the time that over 100 other Indiana communities \u2013 also under federal mandate \u2013 applied for SRF funding, but only Decatur and 13 others were getting the sweet offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com A major, $21 million construction project is expected to begin in Decatur this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-35582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Water-main-work.jpg?fit=540%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35584,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35582\/revisions\/35584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}