Another huge milestone was reached Monday when the Clinton County Commissioners, Clinton County Council and City of Frankfort Utility Service Board all approved an interlocal agreement for wastewater and water infrastructure out to the I-65 and State Road 28 interchange.
Both the Commissioners and County Council passed their portion of the agreement Monday morning and the USB followed suit Monday evening.
“Today was a momentous day where we finalized an interlocal agreement between the city, county and the Utility Service Board to operate the eventually installed sewer and water system that will make available areas to these services at I-65,” said Clinton County Council President Alan Dunn.
This project will extend these services from Jefferson out to the interchange. Cost of the project is $14,116,000, including $11,116,000 for construction and the other $3 million for non-construction or “soft costs.” Bids are expected to go out at the end of this year with construction starting in the spring of 2020. Completion date is set for early spring of 2021.
“This is all taking place in a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district,” said Dunn. “The purpose of that district is that new tax revenues generated by development in that area can be set aside to help pay for the infrastructure that was needed to make that area open for development.”
The obvious reason for this move is to develop one of the last remaining interchanges in the state.
“I think there will be a lot of development very quickly at the interchange,” said Dunn. “It’s one of the prime undeveloped interchanges in the state. We’ve got several entities that are just waiting for the final approval for this project to know that it is officially going forward. We expect a lot of development out there.”
Clinton County Commissioners President Josh Uitts said this is something they have been working for almost two years.
“This plan will take sanitary sewer and municipal water service to the west side of the interchange almost a half mile past the interchange,” said Uitts. “It’s really going to activate all four corners of the interchange.”
Uitts added, “We believe activating that interchange will bring some financial prosperity for Clinton County.”
Utility Service Board Chairman Mike Kelley says this project is really a win-win for a lot of people.
“It should be a real economic boon to both the city, the county and everyone,” said Kelley.
Dunn talks about the kind of expansion he’s expecting.
“I think this will be kind of a barbell strategy where you have the development in the existing Industrial Park on one end, the development at the interchange at the other and then it will probably feed towards the middles,” said Dunn.