BAZETTA Trustees seek water deal OK

The contract includes no details on waterline financing or consumer rates.
WARREN -- Bazetta Township trustees have asked the Trumbull County commissioners to approve a deal they worked out with Consumers Ohio Water Co., which would allow the private company to build waterlines and sell water to township residents.
Trustee William O. Glancy presented commissioners with copies of a proposed contract with Consumers on Thursday.
"As a board, we really aren't particular on who provides us with water, but we need it," Glancy said of the township trustees. "We need it desperately."
The contract has not been reviewed by commissioners or the county sanitary engineer. Only commissioners have the authority to approve water line projects.
"I just got a copy of the agreement and there are no financial numbers," said sanitary engineer Thomas Holloway.
"Consumers has failed to give us information on how it will pay for the projects or how much they would charge [users]."
Existing agreements promise that any waterlines built in some portions of the township will deliver water from the city of Warren, he said.
Urgency
Glancy said the company hoped for an answer within 30 days.
"We have $350,000 homes where we can't drink the water," he said. "We need it now."
Commissioners, meanwhile, approved splitting the cost of relocating a waterline that hung under the West Park Avenue Bridge in Weathersfield Township and is being replaced.
The sanitary engineer, city of Niles and county commissioners will each pick up one-third of the estimated $160,000 cost to run the line under the Mahoning River.