WARREN Residents say they badly need water

Residents are just looking for something everyone else has.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The rich, brown water that bubbles up from wells on Richardson Drive in Hubbard eats through water pipes and gums hot water heaters.
You can't drink it, even treated, and the geology under their homes, residents on the dead-end street say, is so poor sometimes the brown water doesn't come at all.
"We have nice houses. We don't live in a slum there, but we don't have water," said Steve Knebel, one of five Richardson Drive residents who pleaded with Trumbull County commissioners Wednesday for a waterline.
"We need help."
What they need
Residents say they only need two-tenths of a mile of pipe to hook the 10 houses on the road to a main that runs down Chestnut Ridge Road.
Consumers Ohio Water Co., a private company that wants to take control of part of the county's water system, has promised to do it, as long as commissioners go along.
"If Trumbull County has not given water to us, why can't we go to Consumers?" asked Rebecca Kavalesky, who lives on the road, but says she often must go to a truck stop to shower.
"We are just asking for something everyone else has," she said.
Consumers does not have waterlines near Richardson Drive, but over the last several weeks, the company has been pushing a proposal to take over operation, maintenance and customer billing for county-owned waterlines in Brookfield, Hubbard, Vienna, Liberty and Howland townships.
In return, the company has offered to install $4 million worth of new lines in those areas.
Commissioners say they are considering the proposal. Thomas Holloway, the county sanitary engineer, has expressed reservations about what he says is Consumers' history of charging high rates to individual customers and public water systems.
"We have to find a solution not only for the people that were at our meeting, but for people all over the county," said Commissioner Joseph Angelo Jr. "We have to find a solution that is long-term."
Resident Tony Kavalesky said a representative of Consumers told them the company can put in waterlines for $6,700 per home and get the work done by February. He said they also promised level water rates for four years.
Degree of control
For Consumers to actually do this, it would have to be given a degree of ownership or control of the county's water system that it does not have now.
Anyone can extend a waterline, but they have to turn over ownership of the line to the county when they hook it into the county system, Holloway said.
An option open to residents is to pursue a private waterline extension and divide among themselves the cost of a new waterline that would be owned by the county, Holloway said.
A line generally costs between $40 to $60 a foot and residents pay according to the distance the line has to travel across their property.
The county approves dozens of such extensions a year.
Richardson Drive residents say that solution has been discussed over the years, but the cost is too high.
"We are not so concerned with who gives us water," Knebel said. "We are getting desperate."
siff@vindy.com