MVSD RATES Engineer awaits numbers
A final cost on improvements is needed before member cities are notified.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District's chief engineer wants to meet with representatives from Niles and Youngstown about possible rate increases as soon as he has solid numbers to work with.
Tom Holloway told the board of directors Wednesday that he's begun drafting letters to send to the cities' mayors to discuss needed improvements at the water treatment plant.
"We want to see if we can meet at the same time to discuss this once we get the budgetary numbers," he said.
The board previously hired Public Finance Management of Cleveland to review capital improvement projects throughout the district and determine how much extra revenue the MVSD will need to cover the costs.
Once he receives the costs of the needed repairs, Holloway said he will send the letters.
Preliminary figures are that the district will need to raise its rates to member cities by 10 percent each of the next three years.
That would increase the MVSD's revenues from $7.6 million annually to $10 million.
Putting funds to use
The money generated would be used for several projects in the district, including $7.2 million to improve the water filtration system, $1.5 million to renovate or replace a storage tank in Niles and replacing the roof of a building where chemicals are stored and fed into the treatment system.
It's the figures for that project Holloway said he is waiting on.
Any rate increase by the MVSD, however, must first be approved by a court of jurisdiction, which is made up of Judge Jim Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and Judge Peter Kontos in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
The MVSD treats water from the Meander Reservoir and sells it wholesale to Niles and Youngstown, which are member cities. The district also sells wholesale water to McDonald.
Each of the communities then sells the water to more than 300,000 customers -- both residents and businesses -- throughout the Mahoning Valley.
If rate increases are approved for the MVSD, the member cities could decide to pass all or part of them to customers, or simply absorb the costs.
Proposal to monitor
Also at the meeting, Holloway told directors that only one proposal was received to monitor the levels and conditions of the reservoir.
Youngstown State University submitted a plan to monitor the reservoir from December through March at a cost of $36,542. YSU would conduct taste and odor studies, as well as try to determine any factors that might prompt a cold-water alga to change the water.
In early 1999, MVSD discovered an alga called synura in the water supply. Though the alga is not harmful, it tends to produce a distinct cucumber-type odor and taste.
There have been no problems with the alga since that time, but MVSD officials are interested in finding what environmental or chemical elements trigger the alga to better head off problems in the future.
Directors agreed to study the proposal before awarding a contract.
slshaulis@vindy.com