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Poland council tables proposed storm water plan
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POLAND
Village council has tabled a measure to establish a storm-water management plan.
The proposed ordinance outlines all six requirements from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for operators of a small municipal separate storm-sewer system, said Councilman Joe Mazur.
Last month, however, residents turned in a petition with 220 signatures to remove the storm water utility ordinance. The referendum will be on the November general election ballot. Until then, all items related to the ordinance, including fee collection, are on hold, Mazur said.
“We had all these meetings for over a year, a public session, we had everything. I get one phone call about it. If we cave in now, we’re being held hostage by a few people in the village that want to have a referendum,” he said.
Although no contract had been signed, Mazur said he had tentative agreement with Aqua Ohio to collect the fee in return for 6.9 percent of the amount collected. That fee was to have been collected starting in January.
“We felt it would be in bad faith to start collecting it,” said Mayor Tim Sicafuse.
Sicafuse said council’s streets and sidewalks committee is creating a list of projects that would be paid for by the storm water utility fee.
“We are compiling a list of projects that need corrected. That’s the one thing people complained about and we didn’t have an answer for them,” Sicafuse said.
The monthly storm water utility fee is $3.50 per one equivalent residential unit, which is 2,500 square feet. Under the ordinance, all homes, regardless of size, are equal to one ERU, but commercial properties are assessed the fee based solely on square footage without a cap.
The fee is expected to generate about $70,000 annually.
Sicafuse said the Environmental Protection Agency will test the water in Yellow Creek in the spring.
“We’re the administrators of the storm-water system. We need to keep it safe and clean,” he said. “The EPA could come in and test these things and say you have high levels of pollutants and 30 days to fix it. ... This is the most fair and economical way to pay for these projects.”