HUBBARD Notice calls for residents to update septic systems

Those who received the notices will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the township administration building.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HUBBARD -- When Kris Fidram takes a walk around her Hubbard Township neighborhood, she smells the lingering odor of sewage.
Fidram, of Lawnview Avenue, in the southwest section of the township, is one of about 50 property owners who have been notified that their septic systems are inadequate.
The notice from the Trumbull County Health Department instructs them to contact the agency about upgrading their systems, have a water quality sample taken to determine if their system is functioning or petition the county for the installation of sanitary sewers.
George Buccella, county health department administrator, said the water quality tests can be done in spots where the discharge couldn't be located.
"What we need are sewers here," Fidram said, explaining that sewage is running along the ditch in front of her home, in which she has lived since 1977.
There are no sewers in the area as Youngstown and city of Hubbard are the closest municipal systems.
"We inherited this problem," contended Fidram, who had thought her system was so old that it wouldn't require updating.
Fred Hanley, Hubbard Township trustee, said those who received the notices will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the township administration building on Elmwood Drive with trustees and county health officials.
"They're going to be all mad. I understand that," Buccella predicted.
Price per system
Hanley said the notices have been sent to residents in the southwest section of the township, along Woodbine Avenue and its side streets.
New systems cost between $10,000 and $15,000, although Fidram and her husband, Patrick, were told by one installer the cost might be as high as $20,000.
"This is just going to be such a [financial] hardship," Fidram said Monday, adding she knows that some people won't be able to come up with the money to correct the problem.
Fidram said she may be able to get a loan for the work.
The testing, Buccella explained, was done after the county received a complaint of sewage running onto one property.
Fidram said she believes the testing should be expanded. If homeowners along Woodbine and its side streets upgrade their septic systems, sewage from other neighborhoods will continue to flow into the ditch along the front of her home.
"If we have to clean ours up, we want everybody tested," Fidram asserted.
She called attention to streets that parallel Woodbine, such as Oakmont and Shadyside drives and Liberty, Orchard, Rosedale and Homewood avenues where tests should be made.
yovich@vindy.com