Residents push for sewer project

By ASHLEY LUTHERN

Chuck Whitman of CTW Development has offered to complete the sewer project on Summit Drive.

CANFIELD — Melissa Stanish won’t let her niece and nephew go near the squishy, smelly area of her backyard that surrounds her septic tank.

“It’s terrible having septic. In five years, I’ve had to put hundreds of dollars into maintaining it,” Stanish said.

A septic tank is a buried, watertight container that holds all of the wastewater that exits a house until the solids settle out (forming sludge), and oil and grease float to the surface. The water is released into a drain field under the tank, moving lower and lower until it’s purified and becomes part of ground water, according to an Environmental Protection Agency homeowner guide.

Stanish and other residents on Summit Drive, located off U.S. Route 224 just before state Route 11 in Canfield Township, have been trying for years to get a sanitary sewer put in along the street, calling everyone from township trustees to the Mahoning County Sanitary Engineer’s Office to the EPA.

“I’m guessing that the residents have been concerned about this for about five years and they’ve been to every trustee meeting in 2008 to voice their concerns,” said Canfield Trustee Randy Brashen.

But it is not within the township’s scope of power to alter sewer lines, he said.

Chuck Whitman, president of CTW Development, was at the trustees meeting Monday and said that he would use his equipment to complete the sewer project.

“The sewer stops at one location in the middle of the street and then is at the other end of the street, and we’re going to try to connect them by the end of the year,” Whitman said, adding that his company will be reimbursed when residents make tie-ins to the system.

Whitman can do this because of Section 307 in the Ohio Revised Code that allows an individual constructing a project, like Whitman’s development that connects to the end of Summit Drive, to make a sewer line. If in the process of getting the line where he needs it, other households can tie into the sewer, then they can pay him a tie-in fee, said William Coleman, office manager at the county sanitary engineer’s office.

“Hypothetically, they’ll pay about $5,000 and whatever the tapping fee is, so it’s more of a direct financial hit to homeowners,” Coleman said.

Another option is for the residents to petition the Mahoning County commissioners to construct the project, which is a lengthy process, and the costs would either be paid by residents at the end of construction or placed on their taxes to be paid over a 20-year period, he said.

“Ultimately, the goal is to eliminate septic systems because they’re very maintenance-intensive and over time can present environmental concerns,” Coleman said.

While Whitman’s offer does present a potential solution to the problem, Stanish is still uneasy.

“There’s nothing in writing to guarantee that things will get done. I mean, I hope they do get done, but there’s no guarantee,” she said.