TRUMBULL COUNTY Townships ask board to weigh water plan

Consumers Ohio Water Co. would operate and maintain county-owned waterlines.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trustees from more than a half-dozen townships have appealed to Trumbull County commissioners to consider a proposal from Consumers Ohio Water Co. of Ohio as a solution to their water woes.
"The board of county commissioners' failure to provide a safe and reliable water supply to all residents of Trumbull County constitutes a wholly unjustifiable defiance of the public interest," Atty. Mark Finamore, vice chairman of the Trumbull County Township Association, read from a resolution unanimously passed at the organization's last meeting.
Trustees from Hubbard, Brookfield, Johnston, Liberty, Weathersfield, Bazetta and Howland each briefly spoke at a packed county commissioners' meeting Wednesday.
They each urged the commissioners to look at a proposal that would hand control of part of the county water system to Consumers Ohio, which promises to invest $4 million in new waterlines in return.
"Without access to an adequate and safe water supply, there will be no residential development, and our tax base will stagnate or decline," said Finamore, also a Vienna trustee.
"Our residents need water, and they need it now," said Fred Hanley Jr., a Hubbard trustee. "I've been a township trustee for 14 years now, and the situation is only getting worse."
The water company's proposal, announced at a commissioners' meeting in September, called for the county to turn over control of waterlines in Brookfield, Hubbard, Vienna, Liberty and Howland Townships to the private company.
The lines would remain county property, but Consumers Ohio would maintain them and bill the roughly 3,300 customers for the 20-year life of the agreement. The company has promised to drop rates by 7.5 percent for current customers and keep them at the low rates for at least four years.
New waterlines
But the part of the proposal that excited trustees was the promise of $4 million worth of new waterlines -- about 25 miles' worth, said company president Walter Pishkur.
The proposal submitted to commissioners calls for the lines to be installed in the five-township area where the company wants to take over service.
"We would like very much, with the county, to extend the program and expand service," Pishkur said.
Consumers Ohio introduced the current proposal after two years of negotiation over their earlier proposition fell through over price. The company wanted to buy parts of the county water system in Brookfield and Hubbard.
The county thought the system was worth $2.1 million, said Thomas Holloway, county sanitary engineer. Consumers Ohio offered $700,000.
At stake for Consumers Ohio are county bulk water purchases worth about $1.1 million a year, Halloway said. Trumbull County now buys the water it distributes through area lines the company wishes to control exclusively from a Consumers treatment facility in Pennsylvania.
But a recently completed construction project would allow the system to be fed from Hubbard. Links that would allow water to be supplied from Niles or Youngstown are in the works.
Niles charges about half as much for water as Consumers does, and the company gives better deals to some cities than it does to the county, Halloway added.