Town staff explained how the board arrived at a preliminary ERU assignment for a recently opened Taco Bell and discussed whether the town should proactively review commercial ERUs.

"So for a restaurant that is not open 24 hours...the rate is 35 gallons per day per seat," Speaker 6 said, summarizing the Indiana Administrative Code's design-flow table. Staff counted 40 dining-room seats and used 35 x 40 x 30 to estimate roughly 42,000 gallons per month, then divided by the town ERU standard of 7,000 gallons to reach 6 ERUs.

Staff noted the town code permits a business to request a review after 12 months using actual water bills. Board members debated whether the town should contact businesses proactively or wait for appeals. Speaker 2 and others raised the administrative cost of outreach; Speaker 5 argued the onus should be on businesses to request reviews, while staff said they could search Indiana American Water's portal by address and may be able to pull usage data internally.

"If you could pull a year's worth ... you might be able to figure out what UOM means," Speaker 5 said about reading the water-account interface; Speaker 1 agreed to try to retrieve business accounts and produce data for the board to review.

Why it matters: ERU assignments determine sewer charges for commercial customers. Board members sought to balance administrative burden against accuracy and fairness to businesses.

Next steps: staff said they will attempt to pull available 12-month usage records from Indiana American Water, compile a short list of businesses (including Taco Bell), and present findings at the next meeting so the board can consider adjustments or appeals under the town code.