Middleport Village Council Changes Sewer Bills

The Middleport Council held a meeting on Moday, April 28, 2014 and discussed a few new items of business.

Council Member Doug Dixon was absent from the meeting. The meeting started off with council approving the minutes from the April 24, 2014 minutes. Council also approved payment of bills in the total of $4,386.21. The Refuse report for March was also presented to council and approved.

Head of Middleport Public Works, Fayman Roberts, said he had been getting quotes for fixing the roads, especially the Middleport Hill area, and the cheapest quote was from Myers Paving at $13,600. Council approved to go with Myers Paving for the job. Roberts also brought up that a resident needed a new sewer tap, which was quoted at $4,000. Council approved paying the $4,000 and getting the new sewer tap installed for the resident.

Beth Shaver with the Meigs County Council on Aging came to discuss their intentions with the old school building in Middleport. Shaver said regular services will continue if they get to move into the building, but they also have a list of new and exciting things they would be able to not only offer the seniors, but the whole community. The new services would be things such as, a banquet hall for the community, full service laundry, conference room, adult daycare, music room, senior theater, being a place for the community to have plays, music concerts, etc., fenced outdoor area for seniors, expanded catering service, full scale bakery and cafe, meeting rooms for community organizations, after school programs for kids, and many other things. Due to things that have been said about the council on aging sharing the football field, Shaver wanted to say they had, “no intention in taking the football field from the Big Bend Youth League, and they would be happy in helping maintain the field and stadium and would help them with finding grant money to improve the field and their program.”

Denise Alkire from the Meigs County Grants Office came to continue the discussion with residents about the Neighborhood Revitalization Grant. If the village gets the grant it will be a total of $300,000 for the village to spend on multiple revitalization projects around the village. Some of the things the grant will do if it is awared to Middleport is remove unsafe structures such as the Davis garage on 5th Street, purchase rescue equipment for the Middleport Fire Department, rehab the tennis court, rehab of shelter houses at the parks, new playground equipment at the park, sidewalk improvements in different areas all around town, and the possibility of other projects.

AEP asked the village of Middleport to be a part of their energy partnership program which would give the village programs such as recycling programs, appliance rebates for energy saving appliances, free energy audits, and many other things that could be helpful to the citizens of Middleport. The council voted to approve joining the program.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services gave Middleport eight applicants for the Summer Youth Program, council voted to approve the hire of all eight applicants.

The second reading of the ordinance to hire a grant writer/economic developer was read and approved, the posistion has also been advertised twice now.

Council member Vaughn made a motion to change the water and sewer bill prices. The motion was to lower the cost of sewer bill to have it match the price of the water bill. Traditionally sewer costs one and a half times more, or 150% more, than the resident’s water bill simply because that’s how much more it costs to operate the sewer system and provide the customer with service. Council members Burge and Heighton voted no, but there were enough yes votes for the motion to pass.

While this change seems like one for the better, it may not be. While everyone loves saving money on their bills, no one wants in to be at the cost of their health and safety. Due to the importance and severity of the situation, and the concern that was voiced to me personally by residents, the village news letter from the Mayor addressing this situation is included to further explain what this will mean for the village of Middleport.

The news letter reads as follows, “It is my duty as Mayor to warn you of a pending disaster that has just hit our water/sewer system. At last night’s Council meeting, Dick Vaughan made a motion to reduce our sewer bills by 33%. Roger Manley made the second. They and Sharon Older were the only ones to vote for it but it was enough to pass it. Frankly, that was a reckless decision. It may sound great to have a smaller water/sewer bill but it puts the health and safety of our citizens at risk. When he made the motion, Mr. Vaughan said they knew how to run the system. He and the other Council members don’t know how to run the system. They are not certified operators and that is what we are required to have. Last night we offered to explain why their decision was irresponsible. Those three refused to listen and told us to be quiet. When a resident suggested waiting to bring in experts for their advice, the three Council members said they didn’t need to hear from experts.

That is the decision of those three Council members. To remove the liability for this decision from our staff, we have reported the situation to the proper authorities. It has now been reported to you our citizens. Here are the realities we are now in:

1)“The Village of Middleport must have in place operating procedures that reflect the best use of the system’s flow and routing controls to minimize CSO’s. Includes procedures to identify and correct combined sewer system (CSS) and CSO problems.”

Note: A CSO is a combined sewer overflow into the river.

2)“The Village of Middleport must conduct necessary inspection, monitoring and reporting of CSO’s”

3)‘The Village of Middleport must provide street sweeping and catch basin modification or cleaning at an appropriate frequency to prevent large accumulations of pollutants and debris.”

4)“The Village of Middleport must allocate resources for program implementation, including staffing level and funding, equipment and training. The Village shall ensure the availability of trained staff to carry out the operation, maintenance, repair and testing functions required to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of this permit. Each Staff member shall receive appropriate training.

5)“The Village shall allocate adequate funds specifically for operation and maintenance activities.”

Under these new rates, and assuming nobody gives the Village a bunch of money and assuming we have no big repairs, we estimate that the funds will be depleted during the month of July. We are not allowed to operate in the “red”. The state auditing computer won’t allow it to even be entered. If we are not taking in enough revenue to cover these requirements, it has to be taken from the General Fund. This is the money we normally use for the Police and Fire Departments and I guess the new Economic Development Director position being created by Council. How is that fair to those Departments? What about the great job our Fire and Police Departments are doing?

More information will follow.”

After this topic the Mayor wanted to let the public know the fire department received a grant totaling $10,000 which will be spent on buying all new helmets and will also replace one outfit for the fire fighters.

After this a motion was made to adjourn.