Standing on the Indiana Uni-versity Auditorium stage Friday evening, Bridget Badder encour-aged Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington’s class of 2017 to reflect on the small victories that lead them to big accomplishments.

“Life is all about the small wins,” she said. “It’s all about the little steps being taken every day.”

Badder, who graduated with an associate of science degree in nursing, was the featured speaker for the community college’s spring commencement. More than 1,000 technical certificates and associate degrees were conferred on gradu-ates at the event.

The ceremony marked the com-pletion of an educational journey for students, and the end of Lee J. Marchant’s time on Ivy Tech’s state board of trustees.

Marchant, who is the namesake of the Bloomington campus’s nursing school, has served on the state board

since 2005. He will retire June 30.While recognizing Marchant

for his service, Chancellor Jennie Vaughan announced that Bloom-ington Mayor John Hamilton proclaimed May 12, 2017, as Lee J.

Marchant Day. “We will miss his guidance and

leadership, but we wish him all the best,” she said.

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Utility workers this week installed 18 feet of pipe connecting a sewer line below South Morton Street to nothing. Cardinal Spirits dubbed it a “pipe to nowhere.” City officials say it’s a “pipe to the future.”

Cardinal Spirits owner Jeff Wuslich said the pipe is only the latest example of a contentious history between the city and developing small businesses. The artisan distillery and a handful of businesses supporting the distillery’s “Pipe to Nowhere” cam-paign argue the city of Bloomington’s wastewater policies and methods dissuade incoming business-es and prohibit expansion of existing businesses.

“I’m a reasonable person,” Wuslich said. “I understand the CBU needs to protect its infra-structure and sewers. I just think the pendulum has swung too far. We celebrate the concept of locally owned and small business, but our policies don’t reflect that.”

Monday’s work to install a pipe was done to complete a deal between Cardinal Spirits and the city reached in late 2014. The deal: The city would release Cardinal Spirits’ water and sewer permits in exchange for digging a hole wide enough for two pipe connections. But that deal would not be satisfied for two and a half years, when the growing business decided to put in a kitchen and enter into another deal with city utilities.

“It’s a carrot and stick thing, and the only stick we have is, ‘You’re out of business,’” CBU Director Vic Kelson said. “We’re not in the business of putting people out of business. We’re in the business of pro-tecting the public’s investment and infrastructure and treating wastewater.”

What lies beneathCardinal Spirits wanted to redevelop the former

B&L Sheet Metal building at 922 S. Morton St. as an artisan distillery in 2014, and started the process of attaching to an existing city sewer pipe. What Car-dinal Spirits and the city found when the distillery hooked on to the line was a 75-year-old conjoined sewer line, one pipe servicing both the distillery and two houses behind it.

Such configurations are no longer permitted by state law, according to Kelson, because shared later-als — the pipes property owners are responsible for — create liability problems.

“From a practical perspective, there’s a conflict issue that comes up when we have conjoined later-als,” Kelson said. “Whose problem is it when that conjoined lateral plugs, or that conjoined lateral fails? It’s everybody’s problem, but you may have one person that has money and another person that doesn’t.”

To remedy the situation, CBU required that each building have its own dedicated line. As described by Kelson, the plan was to disconnect Cardinal Spirits from the conjoined pipes and allow the distillery to operate on the existing segment that already tied to the city’s sewer. In exchange for the release of Cardinal Spirits’ water and sewer permits, CBU asked the business to dig a hole large enough for two connection points to serve the residences behind the business.

“We provided the tap. We provided the pipe. We provided the labor to install it all,” Kelson said. “All we asked them to do is dig the hole. Typically, when a project happens like this, when we find a problem, the person who is doing the project is asked to take the corrective action. And that’s what they agreed to do.”

The agreement held Cardinal Spirits responsible for infrastructure it’s no longer tied to, but Kelson said such requirements are a common aspect of deals between the city and small businesses, espe-cially when the business initiates the disruption.

Cardinal Spirits fi ghting with city over ‘pipe to nowhere’By Kurt Christian812-331-4350 | kchristian@heraldt.com

SEE CARDINAL | BACK PAGE

CBU requires separate sewer line for Bloomington distillery

WUSLICH

Ivy Tech grads celebrate small victories, big dayBy Michael Reschke812-331-4370 | mreschke@heraldt.com

YOU ALL HAVE SHOWN

GENIUS IN GETTING TO

TODAY’

‘

JEREMY HOGAN | HERALD-TIMES

Elizabeth May, graduating from Ivy Tech Community College with a degree in health science, adjusts her cap Friday out-side the Indiana University Auditorium.

JEREMY HOGAN | HERALD-TIMES

Christy Owens crosses the stage during the Ivy Tech graduation ceremony Friday at the IU Auditorium.

JEREMY HOGAN | HERALD-TIMES

Ivy Tech-Bloomington Chancellor Jennie Vaughan, left, honors Lee Marchant, who is retiring from the state board of trustees, Friday during

the Ivy Tech Community College graduation ceremony at the Indiana University Auditorium. See a photo gallery from the ceremony at HeraldTimesOnline.com/media. Videos and photo galleries are free to view on HTO.

SEE IVY TECH | PAGE A6

HT-252575-1

A10 | SATURDAY, MAY 13, 2017 | THE HERALD-TIMES | BACK PAGE

“The relevance it has is we asked them to do it, and they said they would,” Kel-son said of the unconnected pipe installed this week.

Cardinal Spirits did hire a contractor to dig a hole in 2014, but according to CBU, the hole was only big enough for one of the two taps required by the city.

City crews came, installed the one connec-tion and left. Cardinal’s contractor filled in the hole, and no further work was done for two years. Both sides detail a series of miscommunications that trailed off into silence until Cardinal Spirits decided to expand and build a kitchen in January of this year.

Mounting problemsWuslich had been

warned by other businesses in town about the hassles and headaches that come with opening a kitchen under CBU jurisdiction — particularly the instal-lation of a grease intercep-tor. The larger counterpart to a grease trap, intercep-tors are filtering vats that separate grease, fats, oils and solid detritus from the wastewater entering the sewer system. Interceptors preserve the city’s sewer infrastructure and help pre-vent threats to the environ-ment and public health.

But that comes with a cost.

Wuslich estimated the cost of Cardinal’s 16,000-pound, 1,000-gal-lon concrete interceptor at $20,000 without labor, crane rental and the cost of tearing up and reinstall-ing the distillery’s deck. These are not the only costs Wuslich identified as a part of the systemic contention between CBU and develop-ing businesses.

In the past, Cardinal Spirits spent $40,000 to hire a contract engineer to evaluate CBU’s regulations and meet the city’s require-ments. The distillery owner also takes issue with the sampling system CBU uses to determine sewer charg-es, claiming it’s unfair for a snapshot of Cardinal Spir-its’ wastewater to be used to represent the business’s typical discharge.

For example, whiskey production results in waste-water with a greater per-centage of solids than gin production, so the snapshot sampling of a whiskey pro-duction’s wastewater might misrepresent the business’s less-demanding produc-tion of gin. After budgeting for some of CBU’s regula-tions, Wuslich said, some were still too expensive, so the distillery now does its own waste collection among its stills.

Cardinal Spirits collects its spent grain in a handful of 275-gallon plastic totes in the back of the build-ing. Cardinal has to pay a third-party waste collec-

tion service up to $1,000 per month for its removal. A surcharge the city applies to high-volume users such as distilleries, wineries and other large consumers also gives Wuslich pause. He said Cardinal Spirits puts spent grain, grapes and sugar down the drain at a rate of less than two gallons per minute.

It’s almost embarrass-ing, Wuslich said, to think Bloomington’s solid waste treatment infrastructure can’t handle less than two gallons of wastewater per minute.

“These are specific com-petitive disadvantages that businesses in Bloomington face that distilleries in other places don’t,” Wuslich said. “The requirements we’ve met with here are not at any other distillery in the country.”

While some of the requirements come from federal law established by the U.S. Environmen-tal Protection Agency, Deputy Mayor Mick Ren-neisen said many of these requirements are also part of what makes Blooming-ton appealing. Renneisen says the city has not seen a reluctance on the part of business owners to locate in Bloomington, nor has he seen businesses leave because of such regula-tions.

“Bloomington is a pretty good place to start and grow a business. Maybe there are some additional things you have to do here that you wouldn’t have to do in other communities — Mitch-ell, Martinsville, Salem, Bedford — but there are some benefits to being in Bloomington,” Renneisen said. “The higher standards that we’re all held to create a better business climate. It creates the amenities that make Bloomington an attractive place to start a business, to raise a family and all the other things.”

He continued that the new administration under Mayor John Hamilton is willing to work on a per-ception that’s been created over the years that the city has created hardships for businesses.

“I get the emotion of the

moment, and I get being upset about it. We want to be perceived as business friendly for sure, but I see that in Jeff’s eyes and the eyes of others, we are not,” Renneisen said. “There has to be a happy medium in those things that people consider barriers, but they also create the environ-ment that helps businesses grow and attract people here.”

Kelson, who was appointed utilities direc-tor by Hamilton in April 2016, added Bloomington has had one of the leading pretreatment programs in the state. Kelson listed Fort Wayne and Evansville as cities with comparable system requirements.

Those requirements also are meant to serve the ratepayer, Kelson said. Any time CBU considers footing the bill for a project, CBU officials also must consider the reaction from the utility’s ratepayers. Cov-ering costs for one business may, to that business’s com-petitor, look like the city is playing favorites. Kelson said he suspects some rate-payers would likely take issue with any CBU-funded work at a distillery or other alcohol-related business.

The last strawBefore Cardinal Spir-

its could start installing a

grease interceptor, CBU required the business to resolve the underground tap issue from 2014. There was one more tap to be installed, and after some resistance, Cardinal Spirits paid $5,000 to dig another hole for a second connec-tion point.

According to the busi-ness’ “Pipe to Nowhere” page at cardinalspirits.com/pipe, Cardinal Spirits would need to sell more than 800 bottles of spir-its to pay for the tap. The website details how that money could have been used for several things, such as: the development of a new product; entry fees for four spirits competi-tions; advertising through local businesses; an expan-sion of a popular line of bourbon; and the purchase of a walk-in fridge.

It’s uncertain when the clay pipes now serving the two houses will fail, so for now, the 18 feet of pipe are not servicing either of those homes. They remain on a conjoined system attached to the single tap installed in 2014.

“We do this all the time. There are stubbed off sew-er pipes and water pipes all over the city that are there for handling these kinds of eventualities because what we don’t want to do is keep tearing up the streets for these sorts of projects,” Kelson said.

The work wasn’t done without concessions on the city’s part, Kelson said. Cardinal Spirits could have constructed its own line, according to Kelson,

but it would have cost the new business upwards of $10,000. Kelson said the city paid $469.61 for the connec-tion point, the piping and the installation. CBU also waived the $75-per tap fee, according to a follow-up email from the utility’s staff.

Kelson said CBU fre-quently allows businesses to operate for six months to a year before requiring a grease interceptor. Ren-neisen added that those concessions specifically allow for businesses to get started without incurring a prohibitive initial cost.

Because Cardinal Spirits plans to locate its grease interceptor underneath its deck, Kelson said CBU will let the business conduct its kitchen operations without the infrastructure for the next few months, to allow for “patio season” to end before the deck is torn up.

City requirements serve not only to protect ratepay-ers’ investments, accord-ing to Kelson, but also to future-proof businesses for expansion. That’s why, even if a business opens with a menu that doesn’t require a grease interceptor, install-ing one will allow for menu expansions that do.

“The problem is, once the kitchen is in place, it’s too late for us to take any kind of corrective action, so we have to plan for what could happen,” Kelson said. “We’re not going to send people in there to look at your bill of fare. You can see that becomes even more draconian if the utilities department shows up and looks at your menu.”

Kelson said there are communities that try to do this, but Bloomington doesn’t have the staff or the equipment to do so. Wuslich contested Kel-son’s assertion that the city doesn’t police menus, say-ing he’s had city officials check the food he makes to ensure he’s in compliance.

Light at the end of the pipe

Kelson said CBU work-ers are discussing the city’s grease policy beyond inter-ceptor systems. He men-tioned one idea that can be described as “grease insur-

ance,” in which a business might pay an added fee on each month’s bill to offset the cost of the damage to the pipes a kitchen without a grease interceptor cre-ates. Then, after two years of paying that insurance fee, the business might have the funds to pay for the infra-structure.

It’s an idea, but one that comes with its own prob-lems.

“The reason we ask res-taurants to get grease out of the water before they put it in the sewer is to make sure the people that are generat-ing the grease are paying for the effects of the grease. Our objective is to keep the grease out, not to pay for the damage that is being done by the grease,” Kelson said. “Any time you push a complicated machine, when you push on one part of it, something else breaks loose. You really have to look at things from begin-ning to end.”

Wuslich suggested implementing a business adviser position within CBU, a person dedicated to voicing a business own-er’s perspective as the city navigates how to match the pace of business with city-imposed requirements.

For now, Cardinal Spirits is asking supporters of its position on city govern-ment to sign a “Petition to Fix City of Blooming-ton Utilities Management Issues.” The business is also looking to have a public meeting to discuss these issues.

“I love Bloomington. I came here for school and, like many, never left,” Wuslich said. “I’m desper-ate for businesses to be in Bloomington, but there seems to be a general con-tempt for small businesses that aren’t aligned with the city. If people weren’t mak-ing emotional decisions, and they were just looking at the numbers, Blooming-ton would be a desirable location. We are fully com-mitted to Bloomington, and that’s why we’re speaking out, but when we’re think-ing about another loca-tion or production facility, I can’t imagine it being in the city limits.”

S. Madiso

n St.

B-Lin

e Trail

Cardinal SpiritsS. Morton St.

The properties at 1005 and 1009 S. Madison St.currently share a sewer line. The city wants theproperties on separate lines.

Sewer line

1005 S. Madison St.

1009 S. Madison St.

New separate sewer lines

H-T GRAPHIC

CARDINALCONTINUED FROM PAGE A1

RENNEISENKELSON

812.837.9654 • www.RapidRoofs.com

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National outlook

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. © 2017

Legend for City Lists: W-weather, s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice

Around the nation todayAlbany . . . . . . . . . .55 45 rAlbuquerque. . . . .84 55 sAnchorage . . . . . .50 41 rAtlanta. . . . . . . . . .76 59 tAtlantic City . . . . .58 48 rBaltimore . . . . . . .57 45 rBillings. . . . . . . . . .64 41 shBirmingham . . . . .77 56 pcBoston . . . . . . . . . .54 45 cBrownsville . . . . . .90 69 pcBurlington, VT . . .63 47 rCasper . . . . . . . . . .80 39 pcCharleston, SC . . .79 61 tCharleston, WV . .70 49 pcCharlotte. . . . . . . .71 52 rCincinnati . . . . . . .72 52 pcCleveland . . . . . . .65 51 pcColumbia, SC . . . .76 57 tColumbus . . . . . . .70 53 pcDallas. . . . . . . . . . .83 62 sDayton. . . . . . . . . .70 54 pcDenver . . . . . . . . . .83 49 pc

Detroit . . . . . . . . . .68 50 pcEl Paso. . . . . . . . . .93 63 sFairbanks . . . . . . .63 43 pcFlagstaff . . . . . . . .67 38 sGrand Rapids . . . .69 49 pcHartford . . . . . . . .56 42 rHelena . . . . . . . . . .53 33 cHonolulu . . . . . . . .85 74 shHouston. . . . . . . . .87 64 sJackson, MS . . . . .77 57 pcJacksonville . . . . .82 63 tKansas City. . . . . .78 56 sLas Vegas . . . . . . .84 62 sLittle Rock. . . . . . .77 53 sLos Angeles . . . . .74 56 pcMemphis . . . . . . . .77 55 sMiami Beach. . . . .92 76 pcMilwaukee . . . . . .71 52 pcMinneapolis . . . . .81 58 sNashville . . . . . . . .76 52 sNew Orleans. . . . .80 65 sNew York City. . . .54 48 r

Omaha. . . . . . . . . .81 58 sOrlando . . . . . . . . .89 67 pcPhiladelphia . . . . .55 48 rPhoenix . . . . . . . . .98 69 sPeoria . . . . . . . . . .78 55 sPittsburgh. . . . . . .64 47 cPortland, ME. . . . .54 42 cPortland, OR . . . . .56 46 shRichmond . . . . . . .62 48 rSacramento . . . . .72 46 sSt. Louis. . . . . . . . .79 58 sSalt Lake City . . . .63 44 sSan Diego . . . . . . .69 58 pcSan Francisco . . . .64 49 sSt. Ste. Marie . . . .60 37 pcSeattle . . . . . . . . . .56 46 shSouth Bend . . . . . .70 51 pcTampa . . . . . . . . . .85 72 pcTucson . . . . . . . . . .95 63 sTulsa . . . . . . . . . . .78 56 sWash., DC . . . . . . .57 50 rWichita . . . . . . . . .76 57 s

Around the world today

Amsterdam. . . . . .64 50 tAthens . . . . . . . . . .89 72 pcBaghdad . . . . . . .100 69 sBangkok . . . . . . . .90 77 tBarbados. . . . . . . .88 81 pcBarcelona . . . . . . .74 60 pcBeijing . . . . . . . . . .84 54 sBeirut. . . . . . . . . . .82 68 sBelgrade . . . . . . . .70 57 pcBerlin . . . . . . . . . . .69 53 cBermuda . . . . . . . .71 68 pcBrisbane . . . . . . . .74 62 rBrussels. . . . . . . . .66 48 tBudapest. . . . . . . .70 55 tBuenos Aires . . . .70 53 cCalgary . . . . . . . . .59 38 cCaracas . . . . . . . . .76 70 pcCopenhagen . . . . .59 48 cDublin . . . . . . . . . .62 42 rHarare . . . . . . . . . .70 52 sh

Havana . . . . . . . . .89 71 sHelsinki . . . . . . . . .53 35 pcHong Kong . . . . . .85 79 tIstanbul . . . . . . . . .81 63 pcJerusalem . . . . . . .84 59 sKabul . . . . . . . . . . .85 58 pcKiev . . . . . . . . . . . .56 47 rKuwait . . . . . . . . .105 82 sLima. . . . . . . . . . . .76 67 cLisbon . . . . . . . . . .68 56 pcLondon. . . . . . . . . .64 51 pcMadrid. . . . . . . . . .69 48 pcManila . . . . . . . . . .97 80 pcMexico City. . . . . .76 56 pcMontreal . . . . . . . .63 46 shMoscow. . . . . . . . .52 32 cNairobi. . . . . . . . . .76 55 tNassau. . . . . . . . . .90 75 pcNicosia. . . . . . . . . .96 66 sOslo . . . . . . . . . . . .55 43 pc

Paris. . . . . . . . . . . .64 49 pcPrague . . . . . . . . . .68 51 cReykjavik. . . . . . . .54 48 shRio . . . . . . . . . . . . .83 70 sRiyadh . . . . . . . . .101 76 cRome . . . . . . . . . . .73 54 pcSantiago . . . . . . . .67 50 pcSao Paulo . . . . . . .80 67 sSeoul . . . . . . . . . . .73 54 tSingapore . . . . . . .86 79 cStockholm. . . . . . .57 36 pcSydney. . . . . . . . . .72 58 pcTaipei . . . . . . . . . . .84 73 tTel Aviv . . . . . . . . .83 65 sTokyo . . . . . . . . . . .69 62 rToronto . . . . . . . . .56 41 shVancouver. . . . . . .57 45 shVienna . . . . . . . . . .71 54 tWarsaw . . . . . . . . .65 47 pcZurich . . . . . . . . . .67 51 t

City H L W City H L W City H L W

City H L W City H L W City H L W

Chicago 75 53 pcEvansville 77 53 sFort Wayne 71 53 pcIndianapolis 72 54 pcLouisville 76 55 sSouth Bend 70 51 pcTerre Haute 74 53 s

Area forecast City High Low W

Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

PollenYesterday’s air in BloomingtonGrass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LowTrees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LowWeeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AbsentMold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ModerateALLERGY & ASTHMA OF SOUTHERN INDIANA WWW.ALLERGYASTHMASI.COM

Sunset today . . . . . . . 8:51 p.m.Sunrise Sun. . . . . . . . 6:34 a.m.Sunset Sun. . . . . . . . 8:52 p.m.Moonrise today . . . . 11:19 p.m.Moonset today . . . . . 8:41 a.m.Moonrise Sun. . . . . . . . . . none

Sun and moon

Weather today

5273

Sunny to partly cloudy and pleasant

87

6585

66

6083

5680

Wednesday

Monday

Sunday

Very warm with times of sun and clouds

Sunny to partly cloudy and very warm

Mostly sunny and very warm

Warm with plenty of sun

Tuesday

THE LATEST FORECAST, WEATHER ALERTS: Follow the weather forecast by the hour, track the radar and find severe weather alerts at HeraldTimesOnline.com/weather