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New water fee won’t be money down the drain
By DENISE DICK
Village residents will pay more in their property taxes to address water problems that have deluged the community.
Village council this week unanimously passed an ordinance establishing a stormwater-utility fee. Passage followed three readings of the legislation.
Joe Mazur, council president, who also leads council’s streets, sidewalks and drainage committee, said there was no opposition to the ordinance.
It calls for a monthly fee of $3.50 for a basic unit of service — about $42 per year.
“We figure it will generate about $70,000 per year,” said Mayor Tim Sicafuse.
That money is expected to start coming in to village coffers in mid-2011.
The fund into which the fees will go will be used to maintain open-drainage ways, underground sewers and drains and other storm-water-drainage facilities.
The basic unit of service is 2,500 square feet of impervious surface applicable to single-family residences. That equates to one equivalent residential unit (ERU).
Nonresidential properties with impervious surfaces less than or equal to the basic unit of surface equates to two ERUs.
The maximum fee equates to five ERUs.
“The biggest problem that we have in the village, in my opinion — other than traffic — is water,” Sicafuse.
Mazur said the fee will be imposed retroactive to Jan. 1. It will appear on future property taxes.
Civil-engineering students from Youngstown State University are studying the village’s stormwater system. That work, which is being done at no cost to the village, also will be used to help address water problems, Mazur said.