Play Framework Import Scala files in Build.scala

Question

The layout of my project is just like any other Play project except I have a folder of scala files inside of my project folder that I want to use inside of Build.scala

projectRoot
   ...
   project[projectRoot-build]
        Build.scala
        plugins.sbt
        scalahelpers
             helpers.scala

Then inside of Build.scala... (generalizing a lot here)

import scalahelpers._
object ApplicationBuild extends Build
{
    ....
}

object DeploySettings
{
   //Then I use classes inside of helpers.scala in here
} 

My Build.scala file is working fine when I start the project with the activator command before importing scalahelpers. , but when I add the import scalahelpers. sbt says it cannot find object scalahelpers.

It seems there has to be a way to reference scala files similarly to the way you add library dependencies inside of plugins.sbt. My IDE is seeing scalahelpers just fine and the Build.scala has no errors until I run the activator command. How do I get it to recognize helpers.scala? I'm using play 2.3.6. Thanks!