Officials weigh septic system grants

The county has preferred in the past to use the money for house repairs.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull County officials are working on two new fronts to attack problems with sewers. Both came courtesy of Commissioner Dan Polivka.
At the meeting of the county planning commission Tuesday, staff member Greg Bugnone reported on a proposal to expand the scope of the county's Home Program so that it would help people with septic problems.
Bugnone, who runs the Home Program for the county, will be presenting the proposal to the planning commission's Housing Review Committee within a couple of weeks, he said.
The committee has opposed using its annual allotment of $270,000 to $350,000 in grants for septic problems in the past, preferring to use all of its funds for home improvement projects, Bugnone said.
But Polivka asked the planning commission and the committee to consider any options that would address what he says is a growing and serious problem.
Bugnone said current housing rehab projects cost $30,000 to $40,000 each, allowing about seven to eight homes to receive the funding per year. The program helps low-income homeowners.
It would cost around $50,000 each to upgrade homes that also needed septic system replacements, Bugnone said, explaining that the money cannot be used for septic system upgrades alone. The money would have to be part of a whole-home renovation.
"Sewage is in the ditch, and it's creating a problem," Polivka told the planning commission. "I would like to see us have the flexibility to select a project that needs a septic system," he said.
An official body
On another front, Polivka has started work on a committee that he hopes will define the sewage issues and address them fairly.
"I am in the process of forming an Advisory and Strategic Planning Committee to deal with the ever-growing water, sewer and septic concerns in our Valley," he wrote in a letter to mayors and township trustees.
In the letter, he asks the officials to provide the names of individuals who would be able to serve on the committee. Polivka said he would want various county officials, MVSD Director Tom Holloway, citizens and others to make recommendations to the commissioners.
"We want to make sure we don't misuse any grant money, and people know it's being done fairly," Polivka said, adding that he gets complaints from people questioning some of the priorities in place now.
Alan Knapp, county planning director, said the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has set many of the priorities in the county in recent years through legal action and its ranking of "unsewered areas of concern."