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Resident presses council on delayed outage alerts; council approves water-operator apprenticeship and begins rate-change process
Summary
A resident told the council she experienced a multi-hour delay in outage notification; Clerk-Treasurer Alyssa Knepple attributed delays to contractual issues with the outage-reporting vendor and AT&T and said IMPA is seeking a fix. The council also approved a state-funded apprenticeship for water operator Diana Welsh and discussed adding hydrant rental fees to utility bills per a Baker Tilly rate study.
Resident Deborah Bowers told the South Whitley Town Council on Dec. 17 that she returned home Dec. 6 to find her power out and that the utility had not been alerted until hours later. "I came home and noticed my power had been out since approximately 1:30 a.m.," the resident reported during public comment.
Clerk-Treasurer Alyssa Knepple told the council that contractual issues between the outage-reporting vendor and AT&T have caused notifications to be delayed, sometimes arriving only by email or hours after an outage. Knepple said Indianapolis Municipal Power Agency (IMPA) is working on a solution, and Council President Brock Waterson said he would contact the town’s IMPA representative for more information.
On staffing and utility policy, Knepple reviewed recommended 2026 utility rate changes and said the Baker Tilly rate study recommended an electric-rate increase. She also said the council intends to add hydrant rental fees to resident utility bills to fund projects and town improvements from the General Fund and that a formal rate-change process must begin to accommodate the 2026 budget.
Separately, the council accepted Diana Welsh into the state-funded Alliance Water Operator Apprenticeship Program. Knepple explained the program requires step increases of $0.50 per hour each period during the apprenticeship, with a final wage of $31.84 per hour upon certification. Utility Supervisor Kent Slater said he was concerned that Welsh’s eventual pay could approach his own after 25 years with the town. Councilman Randy Cokl moved to accept the apprenticeship and required pay increases; Councilman Kris Shoemaker seconded and the motion passed 3-0.
No formal timeline for implementing hydrant rental billing or any detailed rate-change schedule was provided during the meeting; councilors directed staff to begin the required process.
