Boardman trustee questions Youngstown's intentions toward suburban townships

EDITOR:
Last spring, the Ohio Supreme Court in Bakies vs. Perrysburg allowed a municipal water supplier to shut off a nonresident's water unless they agreed to annexation. Later Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams announced a 100,000 study being done to evaluate using the city water system as a catalyst for the revitalization of the region.
Because of the Bakies case and the mayor's cabinet sending mixed signals about the purpose of the water study, the elected officials of Austintown and Boardman decided to pursue the options that would counter any potential annexation by the city.
The questions that came to mind included the status of the 1998 Consent Decree between the city and the Ohio EPA regarding violations of the Clean Water Act. Has the city met its obligations and fixed the problems?
Then there is the 2000 performance audit of the city that describes opportunities for millions in savings. We aren't hearing anything about how the savings are coming along. It would be nice to have the mayor tell us what has happened in the seven years since that audit report. Does it show improvement in city operations before the suburbs are further taxed?
The audit indicated that only seven of the 48 employees in the West Avenue plant had EPA certification. Youngstown had the most employees of the peer cities analyzed and the highest operating costs. Canton pumped the most water, but Youngstown had the highest revenues. Canton received revenue of 10 million and Youngstown took in 17 million. While Youngstown had the highest revenues, it had the lowest line replacement per year, just 3 tenths of a Mlle. It would take 2,178 years to replace all the lines. Just look at the recent line break that cost nearly 500,000 to fix.
The report even said the city was losing almost 900,000 a year from water lost that it bought from MVSD. The 900 largest delinquent accounts owed the city 300,000, and 250,000 of that was 60 days behind. What is the delinquency amount today?
The businesses and citizens outside of the city make up the largest customer base for the water system. They already pay a 40 percent surcharge, have been assessed and paid for improvements to the water system and have paid tap in fees for new construction. Seventy percent of the water lines are more than 58 years old. For the 10 year period from 1989, the city had 3,551 water breaks, but only 290 of those occurred in Boardman.
The proposal for establishing JEDDs was the initiative of the city of Youngstown, not the townships. As a member of the larger community I recognize the importance of regional cooperation. The mayor has said he will make the report available to the townships.
Once we know the true purpose of the study and understand his philosophy that JEDDs "may be a mechanism to provide a greater good for the greater majority," we can represent our constituents with all the information in future discussion. Hopefully, the greater good is not to just levy the city income tax on suburban residents working in the townships.
KATHY MILLER
Boardman Township trustee