Last Tuesday the Patoka Lake Regional Water and Sewer District asked me to speak at an open house to celebrate completion of  Those Kids Deserve Water Too. A large crowd attended including many  old friends, and everyone had an enjoyable afternoon. Luckily no one fell asleep as I spoke about how the book came about. I can’t thank the District enough for the opportunity.

In this blog  I though I would share my comments.

 

 

 

Good Afternoon, and Thank you for this opportunity to talk about “Those Kids Deserve Water Too.” Writing the history of Patoka has been a fascinating trip down memory lane. A trip I embarked upon nearly three years ago. That’s when Doug Merkel and Richard Burch conceived of the idea and asked me to help. Along the way, I’ve had the honor of speaking with many who were there at the beginning. To reconnect with old friends and to make several new friends.

In a broader sense, my journey began on a cold March morning in ’76. I was a Senior at Rose-Hulman and in need of a job, so I had signed up to interview with a company I knew nothing about, Midwestern Engineers. At Rose, the placement office scheduled these things, and we never knew our interview time until they posted the times at 8. So, I arrived early and scanned the list. There was my time right after lunch, but that’s when I had a critical midterm exam. I wanted to interview for the job, but I couldn’t miss the test. As I pondered my dilemma, the door opened, and a buddy walked out. I caught the door and stuck my head in – and my heart sank. You see, I was a typical 70’s student with shoulder-length hair and a bushy mustache, and the man in the room was all business, wearing a three-piece suit and sporting a buzz cut – Jim Burch. I swallowed hard and pressed on to explain my dilemma. When I asked if I could have a later slot. Jim sized me up with a steely glare – some of you may remember that look. He thumbed thru a stack of resumes for what seemed an eternity. Then smiled and said.

“Now’s a good time, have a seat.”

Two months later, I was in Loogootee —fresh out of school and green as a gourd. I grew up just south of Lafayette where groundwater is plentiful, so I knew nothing about rural water systems. Although I had often traveled through Paoli and English, to visit family in Leavenworth, I knew absolutely nothing about Patoka Lake.

Jim Burch had hired me to help with his other clients so he could devote more time to Patoka, Over the four decades that followed I was generally on the periphery of Patoka, however I was always fascinated by the District and how it has grown, so preparing this history has been a treat.  I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

My journey began by recording oral history interviews with 35 individuals, including three that were instrumental at the beginning – Ed Pieper, President – Jim Burch, Engineer – Mike Phillips, Attorney.

I spoke with current and former board members and District employees. I talked to Bruce Heeke about his time at Patoka, and about the roles played his father Dennis, and Grandfather Ted.

I spoke with Midwestern employees, with wholesale customers, and with Lisa Gehlhausen at Indiana 15. I met with Contractors Jerry Reynolds, Greg Nobel, and Dave Burton, who together have installed much of the system.

I spent an enjoyable evening north of Taswell interviewing the Fairview Church Cemetery Board. And about a month before he died, I spoke with Steve Wilson about the role FmHA (RD) had played.

Along the way, I learned about capturing drinking water from roofs, about shallow wells that ran dry in the summer, and wells that smelled of sulfur.

I learned about wells that turned cloudy when it rained.

I learned about the Eastridge and Bobby Hall springs, where hundreds of homes got their water. In the process, I learned about the water hauling business.

There were stories about one-room schoolhouses with no wells, and how the teacher would select a good student to fetch water from a nearby home.

I heard about life in the valley before the lake, about working with the corps and about some of the changes that have occurred since the lake was built.

Of course, the history of the District begins with the lake itself. So that took me to 1945 when the Flood Control and Water Resources Commission was formed. Anton “Tony” Hulman was named chairman. He would remain chairman until the 60s.

The Flood Control Commission was responsible for all the Corps flood control projects in the state – dams, levees, and floodwalls, and for all flood plain regulation. In 1965 the commission was merged into the new IDNR.

I learned about the Wabash Valley Association, which was formed in 1957. It was once 8,000 members strong and promoted flood control and navigation projects up and down the Wabash Valley – which drains three-fourths of Indiana, and a large part of Illinois. By 1970 the WVA was so influential that both Indiana Governor Whitcomb and Illinois Governor Ogilvie attended their annual meeting in French Lick.

I learned about the Dubois Chapter, which was instrumental in getting a Patoka reservoir included in the WVA’s proposed projects. I learned that Richard “Dick” Henderson was instrumental in the chapter’s formation in the late ’50s while he was with the Jasper Chamber of Commerce. Dick would leave the area in 1960 and return later as the Executive director of the newly created Patoka Lake Regional Planning Commission (now Indiana 15 Regional Planning Commission).

I learned how the Cigarette tax had funded the Flood Commission’s early reports and studies on Patoka lake. It was these detailed engineering reports that formed the foundation for the Corps’ Interim Report. Finished in ’64 the Corps’ report was the basis for Congress’s authorization of the lake a year later.

For years I had heard that the Lake was originally for flood control only, and that water supply came later, but that was not precisely correct. Water supply was a critical component of the Flood Commission’s early work. In the Corps interim report water supply was a key element in the lake’s design. In their report, the Corps stated that the State of Indiana wanted to purchase the entire 167,000 acre-ft of storage that would be provided by the lake – which they ultimately did.

However, as I dug, one question remained unanswered – Where did the idea of the district originate. No one seemed to remember. The Corps report didn’t mention a water district, they had merely indicated that the water would simply be released from the dam into the Patoka River for downstream communities to use – Jasper, Huntingburg, Winslow, and Princeton.

So, where did the District originate? I kept digging

Once in a while, I would run across intriguing clues.

– Dennis Heeke worked on the legislation to form both regional planning commissions and regional water and sewer districts, spurred in part by development problems around Lakes Monroe, and Brookville.

– Mike Phillips told me that he thought Dick Henderson’s job was to shepherd the formation of the District through the counties. But he was not sure. So that led me back to Indiana 15 and Lisa Gehlhousen. She dug out the commission’s original minute books. They first met in October of 1973.

In that dusty old minute book, I found part of my answer – By the planning Commission’s third meeting, the need for a Regional Sanitary Sewer District was second on their agenda.

At their fifth meeting, Joe Lauck, from the Stream Pollution Control board, was there to discuss the step by step process required to form a sewer and/or water district. The commission tasked Dick Henderson with contacting Dubois, Crawford, and Orange counties to begin the process.

By their sixth meeting, in June of 1974, Henderson reported that Crawford and Dubois Counties had passed the suggested resolutions for the formation of a sewer district. Orange County, however, had passed the resolution with the stipulation that the district be authorized to include both Water and Sewer Utilities. Since all three resolutions had to have identical language – what would the Commission do?

In history, you run across moments where people are faced with simple decisions that change the path of future events. This was one of those moments. Two counties said sewage, one said sewage and water. The commission could side with the majority and ask Orange county to revise their resolution, or they could ask Crawford and Dubois to change their resolutions. Thankfully for this area, the commission approved Don Crocket’s motion to take what was perhaps the harder path, they asked Crawford and Dubois to revise their resolutions to include a water utility.

From that point, the rest is history. Dick Henderson, on behalf of the commission, did indeed shepherd the formation of the Water and Sewer District through the three counties, and then through the Stream Pollution Control Board.

On March 18, 1975, barely a year and a half after the Planning Commission’s formation, the District was born. At the District’ first meeting, on July 14, 1975, Ed Pieper was named president, a position he would faithfully fill until his retirement in 2011.

There was a district, but there was no money, and no plan on how to proceed, so they began a search for an Engineer, and an Attorney. They needed experienced firms that were willing to work on speculation or on the come. Midwestern was hired as the engineering firm, and Mike Phillips was hired as the attorney. Both still work for the District.

In August 1975 when Ed asked James Hamilton, with the Corps of Engineers, if the District could use the lake as a water source, Hamilton said they could. However, he emphasized that the Corps itself would not be interested in supplying water. In the brief exchange that followed came the first hint of the direction the District would take under Ed Pieper’s leadership. They would purchase water from DNR and filter it as a resource for the Dubois and Patoka (little Patoka) utilities. They soon assembled the team that would lead the District through the development of the project.

Edwin Pieper, board president, was the coach or team leader. He kept the team concentrated on the overall vision—supplying water to the surrounding area. Of course, his political contacts would come in handy when it became necessary to seek the assistance of Senator Bayh and others.

Dick Henderson, executive director of the Patoka Lake Planning Commission, had worked for the Indiana Department of Commerce. He was well versed in the grant programs of both HUD and the US Economic Development Administration. This experience would come in handy as the district sought funding.

Jim Burch, an engineer with Midwestern, had worked with nearly all the area water utilities and understood their need for water. He was well versed with Farmers Home Administration funding and with the technical issues involved in developing a rural water system. Jim could see the big picture; he knew how to think big and dream big. Possibly more significant, he had a single-minded determination to effect a solution.

Mike Phillips, was an attorney with the legal finesse and political acumen needed to negotiate with the Corps of Engineers, DNR, and the local utilities. While the district navigated the web of governmental bureaucracy, his statehouse experience proved helpful.

Myron Frasier, a rate accountant with H.J. Umbaugh and associates, was the fifth member of the team, and over the years his knowledge of rates, funding, and utility operations proved invaluable

Barely two months after their first meeting, the District was making plans to take water from the lake, treat it, and distribute it to the surrounding systems – and do it all before the Corps started to fill the lake. Although it seems logical today, in 1975 there was nothing like it in the state. It is essential to point out that these board members were farmers, factory workers, and small-business owners—just ordinary men; none of them was a banker, investor, or venture capitalist. They had no money. They had no water-treatment experience. They had no path to follow.

What they did have was a shared vision and a shared determination to see that vision fulfilled.

Shawn Kluesner told me about one of Ed Pieper’s sayings:

“Ed and Ronnie Crews were driving around one day, and Ronnie told Ed after seeing some kids in the yard playing, ‘Well, those kids deserve water too.’ And that was kind of Ed’s thing. Whenever he’d go look at an area that we wanted to go into, or there was a request in that area, he said, ‘Well, those kids need water too.’ “

Over the next 45 years, the board would see a continual, almost non-stop, demand for water, and then for sewer service. Time and again as new customers came on, demand would exceed plant capacity. Each time, the District moved forward with new construction to meet the growing need. Along the way, funding hurdles sprang up, and as each was surmounted, the district grew.

To create the district, the board of trustees toiled together to fulfill their mission. Although the members were both Republican and Democrat, they left politics at the door. In the boardroom, they were a team.

So today, six thousand retail customers and the customers of 24 utilities get water from the Patoka Lake Regional Water and Sewer District. That’s nearly 40,000 homes in parts of 11 counties, who would have no water but for Patoka.

Water supply from Patoka Lake was a vision shared by generations. The idea was brought to life by many individuals working together with perseverance, doggedness, tenacity, and goodwill. They knew they had to succeed – after all, “those kids deserve water too.”

 

Thank you.