Mishawaka and St. Joseph County officials Tuesday approved an agreement to let the city provide water and sewers to the data center that Microsoft plans to build in Granger. The deal also could pave the way for the city to annex parts of Granger in the future.
It’s a major deal officials have been working on behind the scenes for two months that seems to still be flying under the public’s radar. At meetings happening Tuesday morning at the same time, the county commissioners and Mishawaka’s Board of Public Works unanimously approved the agreement, with no questions or real public discussion by officials and no members of the public asking to speak.
In addition to serving the Microsoft site, the agreement calls for the city to extend water and sewers to undeveloped parts of Granger, annexing land where it can, including existing subdivisions with well and septic problems.
The city in April rushed to petition state regulators to give it exclusive rights to provide water and sewers over a four-mile radius beyond city limits. The county filed an objection since Mishawaka, like most cities, generally looks to annex land when it extends utilities.
But now the city and county will work together over the next two months to draw up a service territory for Mishawaka water and sewers for the county’s northeast corner.
