WARREN Council is told of gripes

The mayor said he'll call a public meeting to explain drainage issues.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
WARREN -- Complaints about floods from this summer's recurring heavy rains dominated city council's meeting, which was attended by a standing-room-only crowd.
"I cannot use my basement as a living space," Jay Menhennet of Meadowbrook Avenue told lawmakers Wednesday night. "That devalues our home. We're just really upset that it just continues to happen. I hope that something gets done."
"The sewers just can't take it," said Gregory Capito, a 47-year resident of Eastland Avenue, referring to storm-water runoff.
Capito, who showed and explained to council members a hand-drawn drainage map of his neighborhood, attributes the flooding problems there to the draining of a retention pond when the Country Club Estates development was built in 2000.
When he asked for a show of hands in the audience, many of his neighbors indicated that they experienced flooding only within the last three years, many of them several times.
"I don't really care how much rain fell those days. I'm only concerned about the amount of water that comes into my basement. I'd like it to be zero," said Brian Rentsch of Meadowbrook Avenue.
"If there's any more development done, it's going to take extraordinary efforts, extraordinary drainage," said Councilman Brendan Keating, D-5th.
"The stench is unbearable and permeates the entire house. Decorations for the holidays and irreplaceable mementos given by deceased relatives must be tossed out," said Darlene Bionci of Porter Street, who added that a city sewer backed up in her basement and those of her neighbors July 21. Her basement was filled with three feet of sewer water, she said.
"Consider the days required to remove debris and disinfect the floor and the walls," she said, adding that she experienced another sewage backup a month later. "This is a citywide problem. I work for an insurance company, and we had over 100 backup claims, many of them on the northwest side of town."
Experience
Mayor Hank Angelo said, "I served in the waste-water department for roughly 13 years, and I probably have been in as many flooded basements as anybody sitting in this room. I've seen the furnaces, the washers, the dryers, the tears when personal mementos are lost.
"I intend to call a public meeting. You need me to have decent answers and to provide correct information to you. You need to be able to see that in the form of either graphs, charts, pictures or diagrams. You need to see where the water flows."
Later in the meeting, council gave first reading to an ordinance that would initially raise residential sewer rates from $1.98 to $2.74 per 100 cubic feet of water for city dwellers and from $2.79 to $3.85 for nonresidents.
It also calls for the rates to rise 17 cents per 100 cubic feet annually through 2007. Noting that sewer rates haven't been increased since 1991, the mayor said the rate increase is needed because of an anticipated $350,000 budget shortfall in the water pollution control department.
"That's something that we can't allow to happen because it cannot operate in the red," the mayor said.