Litigation clogs up waterline

By D.A. Wilkinson

A water district’s legal problems are growing.

LISBON — The intake waterline from the Ohio River for the Buckeye Water District is 3,800 feet from completion. And it’s likely to stay that way for a while, said Al DeAngelis, the district’s manager.

“It [the project] is locked up in litigation,” DeAngelis said.

Pipelines Inc. of East Liverpool and The Acme Co. of Youngstown filed a mandamus action Tuesday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court to get their money. A mandamus action is designed to force a governmental agency to do its duty. The water district is a public agency.

Pipelines wants $676,704 for pipe it has provided for the project, and Acme wants $119,719. DeAngelis said the Acme bill would be for bedding for the pipeline.

The hearing is set for 1 p.m. Tuesday before Judge David Tobin of common pleas court.

Lawyers for the two companies couldn’t be reached.

DeAngelis said the outcome of the new lawsuit depends on the outcome of another suit against the district filed by Craig Edward Susany Inc. of North Lima.

The district fired Susany last October in a dispute over the line’s construction.

The pipeline is to bring water from the Ohio River to the Buckeye water treatment plant near Wellsville to provide water in the southern portion of the county.

Susany had built about 80 percent of the four-mile waterline from the river to the plant. The company said it is owed about $1.7 million

But the Susany lawsuit is still pending and has been ordered into mediation in October of this year. The case is set for trial June 22, 2009, if mediation doesn’t produce a settlement.

The district’s financial problems also include a ruling in February by Judge C. Ashley Pike of Columbiana Common Pleas Court that Buckeye owes $9.7 million to East Liverpool.

Buckeye quit buying water from East Liverpool in 2005. Judge Pike ruled the reasons for the break by the district were pretexts.

wilkinson@vindy.com