Field Day 2020 Recap — Camp Millhouse

Greg Inman, Filed Day Committee Chair

The 2020 IOWPA Field Day on October 27, 2020 was a huge accomplishment for IOWPA and it couldn’t have been done without the support of great volunteers and an incredible amount of donations for the project. Camp Millhouse, which provides a safe, traditional camp experience to individuals with special needs, was well-deserving of being chosen by IOWPA to be our Field Day project.

This project was no small task. We had an estimated $30,000 in material and cash donations and a large group of volunteers. The Field Day Committee decided to split the event into three days with the third day being the actual Field Day for volunteers to come see and learn from the event. The first two days were spent setting three 2,000-gallon septic tanks, one 2,000-gallon dose tank, and one 1,500-gallon grease trap.
As with any project came hurdles, such as locating existing utilities, septic tanks, and the weather. These hurdles were not too much to overcome with a few long days, a great team of volunteers, and a site with well-drained soils. The work completed on Monday and Tuesday helped reduce the amount of work left for Wednesday’s Field Day event.

On Wednesday we focused on the installation of the absorption field, sewer lines, plus a morning and afternoon training session on pumps, floats, and control panels. These events are always a good opportunity to help members in our community but are also a great opportunity to visit and learn from our peers. Again, thank you to all involved who made this a successful project.

We want to give a shot out to all the health departments that came out to help over the three days. We couldn’t have accomplished this without you. These include:

• Brett Davis and his whole crew, St. Joseph County Health Department
• Dave Ortel, Indiana Department of Health (who kept us on track!)
• The whole crew from Marshall County Health Department

Gold ($2000+)

• Drainage Solutions
• Farmer Tank
• Infiltrator Water Technologies
• Meade Septic Design, Inc.
• Rieth-Riley
• Sunset Septic and Excavating
• T & D Excavating
• Watermark Engineered Product Sales

Silver ($1000 – $1,999)

• A+ Water Solutions
• Leeps Supply
• Manufacturers Marketing
• Northwest Excavating
• Schnoebelen Soil Consulting
• Soil Solutions

Bronze ($500 – $999)

• Dingman & Son Excavating
• Elkhart Environmental

Friends of Field Day (under 500)

• GSH, Inc. (Gary Hudson)
• The Baumgartner Family

Big Thanks to the Contractors
who pitched in and got the job done!

• Frank Baskovic, Bass Septic & Sewer Inc.
• Tom Berens, T & D Excavating Inc
• L.A. Brown, L.A. Brown Co.
• Zak Cottrell, T & D Excavating Inc
• Brett Davis, St. Joseph Co. Health Dept.
• Jacob Hall, Bass Septic & Sewer Inc.
  

• Manass Hochstetler, Advanced Home Inspections
• Jim Hoffman, Watermark
• Cory Houseknecht, Sunset Septic & Excavation
• Jon Houseknecht, Sunset Septic & Excavation
• Ben Martin, B & E Excavating and his son
• Andrew McAfee, L.A. Brown Co.

• Dennis Miller, Deep Rooted Excavating
• Gary Miller, Northwest Excavating
• Wilbur Miller, Northwest Excavating
• David Ortel, Indiana Dept. of Health
• Joe Rakoczy, Indiana Dept. of Health
• Doug Williamson, Indiana Dept. of Health