Disputes arise over Boardman residential ponds

By ASHLEY LUTHERN

County regulations since 1983 have mandated that ponds be built in new developments.

BOARDMAN — It’s a battle over retention and detention ponds for residential properties in the township.

Anthony DePinto lives in South Point Run development off McClurg Road. He says the overgrown lot next to his house has a detention pond — a basin that fills during heavy rain — and needs to be better maintained because it poses a safety hazard.

“Our main complaint is that it’s so steep that it could be a safety threat to the children in our neighborhood,” DePinto said.

The township or developers need to do something about the situation, he said.

“It looks atrocious and I don’t even think that it’s functional. The backs of both ponds are eroding,” DePinto said.

But local officials say that the township isn’t responsible for maintaining the pond.

“It’s on private property and we can’t afford to maintain everyone’s retention pond,” said Darren Crivelli, Boardman zoning inspector.

There are two kinds of drainage systems that are causing headaches for township officials. The first is an extended detention basin, which is what DePinto’s development has. This type collects water during storms and once filled, it releases that water to storm sewers and drainage systems.

The second is a retention, or wet, basin. These are best visualized as retention ponds because they are always filled with water.

Since 1983, Mahoning County regulations have mandated that retention and detention ponds be built in every new residential development in the county. Until the last lot of a housing development is sold, it is the responsibility of the contractors to maintain the drainage system.

“We require them for flood control, and rightfully so. I tell people they can have the water in the pond or in their basement,” Crivelli said.

General maintenance requires checking the infrastructure of the pond to make sure that it is draining properly, cutting plant growth around and on the bottom of detention ponds and removing silt build-up on the bottom of retention ponds.

South Point Run was developed by Joseph Sylvester Construction Co., and it maintains the ponds in DePinto’s neighborhood.

“After a heavy rain, we clear tree limbs out of the drain. We keep the grass from getting out of control and cut it about every other month,” said Joe Sylvester Jr., chief executive of the construction company.

Some grass and reeds must be kept fairly high to prevent soil erosion on the sides of the ponds, he said.

“It’s not fair to keep asking builders to pay for the pond after construction is complete,” Sylvester said.

The cost of this upkeep can run into the hundreds of dollars for one Boardman development that maintains its pond and other landscaping through a homeowners association.

“The property is owned and insured by the association. One of the many reasons that we did this, was that if someone were to drown in the pond, the association would be sued, not an individual property owner,” said Don McCloud, president of the Heathers development homeowners association.

The Heathers association collects yearly dues of $160 and has only raised its fee once in the roughly 15 years of the corporation’s existence, McCloud said.

“It works out nicely. We treat the water in ponds, cut the grass weekly and treat the lawns for weeds,” he said. “The only flooding we’ve ever had was years ago, and that was during a catastrophic storm.”

A homeowners association is one reliable way to ensure that ponds are maintained, but township and county officials foresee another solution.

A countywide storm water utility district could be established to enable public officials to set aside funds to use on all the ponds, including those on private property, said Marilyn Kenner, chief deputy engineer for Mahoning County.

“The Ohio state legislature gave the county commissioners the authority to create a storm water utility board,” Kenner said.

That would allow the county to have a criteria based on the amount of paved surface that the average household has on its property, and relate it to a dollar value that is then charged to all the property in that storm water utility, she said.

Boardman Trustee Kathy Miller has led several informational meetings in the last four years about a possible utility, but “no one pursues it afterwards.”

“We should have a storm water utility. The public is not equipped to take care of the ponds, but right now whoever owns the land is responsible for maintaining it,” Miller said.

For now, contractors in the South Point development own the three lots with detention ponds, including the one next to DePinto’s property, and are responsible for pond maintenance.

“Realistically, they’re not going to sell the plots that they have left because the ponds look so bad,” said DePinto. “Everybody keeps saying the homeowners need to take care of it, but we didn’t put it there in the first place.”