One councilman views the long delay as a joke.

One councilman views the long delay as a joke.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HUBBARD -- It's been two years and the city still hasn't been able to annex its own sewage treatment plant from Hubbard Township.
Meanwhile, it's costing the city about $600 per month in taxes to the state because the plant isn't within the city limits.
"It's almost a joke it's taken so long," said Raymond Farcas, D-at-large, chairman of city council's planning and zoning committee.
"I know it's a long process, but not this type of time."
On May 17, 2001, the city petitioned Trumbull County commissioners to annex the 21.6 acres along Elmwood Drive Extension on which the sewer plant sits just outside the city's northeast corner boundary.
That the plant is just outside the city limits didn't seem to make any difference until the state imposed a kilowatt-hour tax in 2001.
City auditor Michael Villano said the city wouldn't have to pay the tax if the plant was inside city limits because of an exemption granted to communities with municipal electric systems, such as Hubbard.
Questions
About a month after the city filed annexation proceedings, it was extended 60 days because of questions raised by the county engineer and auditor.
Because the questions weren't answered, according to commissioners' clerk Roselyn Ferris, commissioners denied the annexation request Aug. 14, 2001.
Ferris said the annexation request has never been resubmitted.
The county auditor questioned if the property in the township was contiguous to the city boundaries, while the engineer pointed to seven deficiencies in the petition, including the lack of legal descriptions of the annexation and right-of-way boundaries.
Dave Stephenson, an engineering technician with the county engineer's office, said he has been working with Robert Toth, assistant city engineer, to get the questions answered.
Stephenson said a new deed needs to be filed with a description of the property to be annexed.
"It has been taking a long time," Stephenson said, noting annexation requests are normally reviewed by him before going to commissioners for a vote. Toth said he inherited the annexation issue because he wasn't named assistant engineer until December 2001.
Drawings
Toth said his role has been to deliver drawings between MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown, the city's engineering consultant, and the county engineer's office.
He maintains that MS and Stephenson have "different interpretations" of the drawings.
John Pierko, vice president of municipal services at MS, said his company didn't get involved until after commissioners rejected the issue in late 2001.
Since then, he said, what part Conrail would play in the annexation took a long time because railroads just don't move quickly. The Conrail tracks serve as the city limits.
Another problem, Pierko explained, is there have been three revisions to the maps required by the engineer's office.
Stephenson said that at first the city didn't answer the questions the engineer's office initially requested, then the city did not file two different maps as required.
The city, Stephenson noted, had also misspelled words on the map.
Nonetheless, Pierko said, resubmitting the annexation question to commissioners is "very close."
yovich@vindy.com