City considers water study option

By David Skolnick

Struthers’ mayor wants to slow down the study.

YOUNGSTOWN — City council will consider a proposal Wednesday to hire a company for $92,000 to examine Youngstown’s water distribution system and its rates.

The study also would include an estimated cost of expanding the water system into Campbell and Struthers.

That is part of Youngstown’s proposal to determine the potential of a joint economic development zone of about 1,200 acres of undeveloped land in the three cities in an area known as the Mahoning River Corridor of Opportunity.

Youngstown officials say about 550 acres of that former mill-dominated area along the Mahoning River is usable for development.

The Youngstown proposal calls for the cities to evenly split a 2 percent income tax that would be imposed on only new businesses in that area.

A major part of the proposal would be the use of Youngstown water in that area.

Campbell and Struthers use water from Aqua Ohio, a private company.

Youngstown had asked the city councils of Campbell and Struthers to approve resolutions allowing the study to move ahead.

Campbell council voted 3-1 on June 3 to cooperate with The PFM Group, the Cleveland company conducting the study.

Struthers City Council’s community development committee will meet Wednesday to discuss the study.

Mayor Terry Stocker isn’t prepared to endorse having the study done, however.

“We want to put the brakes on it and slow the bus down,” he said. “We’re talking of giving up our water supplier. ... There’s a lot we have to consider.”

The PFM Group study should be done in three to four months, said Youngstown Finance Director David Bozanich.

Rough estimates from Youngstown claim the creation of 2,750 jobs generating $2,233,000 annually in income tax in that 550-acre location in six years.

The study would prioritize improvement work needed to Youngstown’s waterlines within and outside the city limits; a cost estimate of water expansion into Campbell, Struthers and other areas; compare rates with other water suppliers in northeast Ohio; and recommend rate increases needed to meet various scenarios.

“This will help us develop a long-term plan as it relates to a water rate structure for the entire system,” Bozanich said.

A study of the city’s waterlines was last done about 25 years ago, he said.

Besides city council, the board of control — consisting of Bozanich, Mayor Jay Williams and Law Director Iris Torres Guglucello — must approve the proposal.

Youngstown’s proposal for an economic development district with Austintown and Boardman has met with opposition from those townships’ trustees.

That $100,000 study, also done by PFM, was supposed to take only a few months. It was released in March, more than 18 months after it commenced.

The proposal to the townships call for Youngstown to impose a 2 percent income tax on current and future businesses in the townships that receive city water.

The townships could add their own 0.25 percent income tax on those same residents.

The proposal calls for the city to cut in half its 40 percent surcharge on Youngstown water in the two townships.

Also, the city would reduce its income tax from 2.75 percent to 2.25 percent for those who work in Youngstown.

That study claims $439 million could go to the city and the two townships over a 20-year period.

The study anticipates a development district would create 3,750 jobs at new businesses on 750 acres in the townships.

skolnick@vindy.com