KANAUGA — Residents in the most southern portion of Kanauga-Addison area affected by the K-A Sewer Project will receive connection letters this week, according to the Gallia County Commissioners’ Office.

Connection notices will be mailed on Tuesday, February 26 to all property owners south of the road-side rest on Ohio 7 North, except for residents of Myrtle Avenue and Georges Creek Road, according to Gallia County Administrator Karen Sprague.

Property owners will have 90 days from the date of the letter to connect to the sewer system, and, once the 90 days has expired, will begin receiving bills whether they are actually connected to the sewer or not.

A sample letter provided by Sprague states that property owners may begin the connection process immediately and may either perform the construction work themselves, if they are an approved sewer contractor through the Gallia County Health Department, receiving a license and permit for the work, or utilize the services of a sewer contractor licensed through the health department.

A list of these health-department approved contractors will be attached to the connection letter and provided to the property owners, according to the information provided by Sprague, and it is recommended that homeowners obtain at least two estimates before deciding on what contractor will make their connection into the sewer system.

Licensed contractors must obtain a permit to perform any installations, and, all connections must be inspected and pass all health department tests. The property owner will be responsible for the correctness of their connections into the county’s system, according to the letter.

Questions regarding the list of approved contractors should be directed to Barbara Bradley, the Gallia County Sanitarian, at (740) 441-2944. Bradley should also be contacted to schedule an inspection of new service lines.

The letter further states that customers will be billed on a monthly basis, and billing will begin once the property owner connects to the county sewer system or 90 days following the date of the connection letter, whichever occurs first.

While installation of all service lines will be at the homeowner’s expense, according to the letter, financial assistance is also available for some homeowners through the USDA-Rural Development or through low-income housing/sewer grants that are administered through Gallia-Meigs Community Action.

Those residents wishing to utilize low-income grant funding must contact Diana Roush of Gallia-Meigs Community Action at (740) 446-1018 prior to obtaining quotes and proceeding with the installation of their connections.

According to the information provided by Sprague, “low-income” households range from $29,700 per year for a one-person household to $56,000 annually for an eight-person household.

Southern Ohio Trenching of Ironton, Ohio, was awarded the bid for the re-construction of the K-A Sewer Project during a Gallia County Commissioner’s meeting in late November.

The bid, in the amount of $1,985,363, represents total completion of the project, according to information previously provided by the commission, and, depending upon a number of factors, completion is expected later this year.

The county commission was given responsibility for the completion of the project after they received a $3.5 million check from the Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland, the former contractor’s bonding company, on October 5 of last year.

Negotiations with the bonding company began shortly after the original contract for the construction of the sewer was terminated with the former contractor, Trimat Construction, just over a year ago.

Following the termination of the original contract, the bonding company hired an outside contractor to “camera” and clear the entire gravity collection system in order to discover the areas in the project that need repaired/replaced.

The entire system that stretches through the Kanauga-Addison area of Gallia County consists of 60,000 linear feet of sewer line, and, as of December, approximately 13,000 feet of that line needed to be reconstructed.

Construction on the system will be completed in phases, with property owners living in the most southern region affected by the sewer receiving connection notices first — as exemplified by the connection letters that will be mailed to residents this week.

Additionally, the letter further outlines this systematic completion stating that “overall completion” of the project is not complete and “operational acceptance from the contractor was given so that you could safety use the sanitary sewers immediately,” the letter reads. “A ‘Final Acceptance’ will occur later. At that time, we will accept all additional aspects of the contractor’s work including ditch re-grading, reclamation, re-seeding, pavement replacement and repairs, etc.”

The Gallia County Commissioners office can be reached at (740) 446-4374 for questions regarding billing. The commissioners should also be contacted if residents observe septic haulers dumping septage into the county sewer system as this illegal practice can cause operational problems that may result in higher costs to the residents of the project.