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Storm-water utility fee is the focus of public meeting
After nearly two years of discussion and legislation, village voters will get the final say in a storm-water utility ordinance.
A referendum to remove the storm-water utility ordinance, and the fee that goes with it, is on the November ballot — and village officials will make their case for the law in a public meeting Wednesday.
The legislation was approved by village council in December, but when residents turned in a petition with 220 signatures to the Mahoning County Board of Elections, officials opted not to collect the fee until election results are known.
The fee would generate about $82,000 annually, officials said.
Those who collected signatures for the petition said they want residents to voice their opinion about the storm-water utility bill.
“It isn’t a traditional levy; this is a fee,” said John P. Scotford Jr., president of the McBarscot Co. in Poland.
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 are equal to one ERU and would pay $42 annually. Commercial properties, however, are assessed the fee based only on square footage without a cap.
Scotford’s company would pay about $4,600 annually for the storm-water fee, but as a Poland Township resident, Scotford cannot vote in the referendum.
Council President Joe Mazur said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandated municipalities to implement “storm-water management procedures” in 2005.
Opponents to the village’s storm-water ordinance argue the law addresses water quantity, not water quality.
Mazur said water runoff that could have pollutants is transported by storm-water systems. He added that income from the storm-water utility fee could be used to replace equipment in the leaf pickup program because leaves can contaminate the water.
Scotford pointed out that the village could use the roughly $1 million it has saved in the general fund from the estate tax for capital improvements, such as leaf pickup equipment.
“It seems to me way premature to start a whole new revenue stream when you’re sitting on [funds] that you can spend on anything you want, no strings attached,” he said.
Mayor Tim Sicafuse said the village has the money in a state-run investment savings account and does not want to dip into it unless there is an emergency.
“We don’t want to take $20,000 here and $20,000 there. ... One million dollars is not a lot in government, and we guard that pretty well,” he said.
Sicafuse said the village is trying to plan for a future that does not include an estate tax beginning in 2013.
“We try to be good stewards of the money and not just blow it on whatever we want,” he said.
Scotford also questioned what will prevent council from increasing the fee.
Technically, nothing.
“It can be changed any time. We’d have to just make a motion to change the ordinance,” Mazur said.
Village officials have outlined three projects they would like to undertake with the fee: replacing pipes and alleviating flooding problems on Botsford Street and Ohio Avenue and finishing a map of the village’s entire storm-water system.
Youngstown State University civil engineering students have completed preliminary studies on Botsford and the overall system map, Mazur said. The cost of the Botsford project is estimated to be about $58,000.
The storm-water fee will be collected by Aqua Ohio on a bill that is separate from residents’ water and sewer bills, Mazur said.
A storm-water fee has been implemented in other Mahoning Valley municipalities. The city of Canfield, for example, charges residents $3 per month in a bill that is collected quarterly, while commercial businesses are subject to an uncapped fee based on square footage.
An earlier version of the Poland Village ordinance had capped commercial properties at five ERU. Under the current storm-water fee rate, Poland schools would pay about $7,000 annually, the village government would pay about $2,600 annually and Poland Presbyterian Church would pay about $1,000 annually.