Austintown hires firm to study line ownership

The trustees question who owns the water and sewer lines in the township.

VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT

AUSTINTOWN — A potential water war with Youngstown is heating up.

The Austintown Township trustees voted unanimously Monday — with no comment or explanation — to hire an engineering and surveying firm. Sands Decker CPS, LLC of Columbus, Zanesville and Logan, provides services for a variety of state, municipal, educational and private clients.

Trustee David Ditzler said he hopes the firm can determine who owns the water and sewer lines in the township: Youngstown or the developers and homeowners who had them put in.

Ditzler said the trustees believe they have a right to the lines and city officials believe they have a right.

Austintown officials said they are working with Boardman and Canfield.

Ditzler said there is no particular agreement between Austintown and Canfield about hiring Sands Decker. The trustee believes Boardman has also hired the company.

The city had previously suggested formation of a Joint Economic Development District in which some workers in Austintown and Boardman would pay a 2 percent income tax. In exchange, the city offered to reduce a water surcharge from 40 percent to 20 percent and provide various economic development tools to the townships.

Ditzler and Canfield Township Trustee Bill Reese have since talked about forming a JEDD to create an alternative water district to Youngstown’s.

When contacted Monday evening by The Vindicator, Mayor Jay Williams said the issue has been settled. He said city lawyers and the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office have said that the city owns and maintains the water system and sewers.

He said township officials can pay money to find someone to give them a report that states what they want to hear.

Williams said that though some subdivisions may try economic development efforts on their own, “regional cooperation is inevitable.”