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Officials meet to discuss water issues
Warren
Liberty trustees met with Trumbull County commissioners to seek resolution for the water pressure and pricing rates issues they claim to have with their provider — the city of Girard.
Mark Finamore, attorney for the township, and trustees said the point of Tuesday’s meeting was to make the commissioners aware of the problems and to seek solution through the commissioners’ legal relationship with Girard.
“We’ve come to a crossroads here where we need to solve this problem,” Trustee Jodi Stoyak said to the commissioners.
But Girard Mayor James Melfi called the township’s move politically motivated.
“For 10 years, I haven’t even heard six complaints from Liberty residents about water,” he said. “If anybody has a problem with water, we will solve that problem.”
He maintained the water-pressure problems in Liberty affects only 10 homes, and several of the current issues are due to the city’s trying to increase the pressure to those homes.
“We have invested a lot into their infrastructure,” Melfi said. “[Liberty has] not invested anything into it.”
He pointed to the $63,000 the city spent on the Park Circle waterline as an example.
Rex Fee, executive director of Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer, defended Girard at the meeting on the issue of increasing pressure.
“When you change the way the system operates, you can expect [waterline] breaks,” Fee said.
But Liberty also brought to the commissioners’ attention the increasing and inconsistent bill rates.
For example, the township’s administration building was charged $134,179 for August water usage but was only charged $97 for July. Trustees say the bill was an obvious mistake but that it points to a trend.
“With today’s technology, they should have more consistent billing,” Finamore said.
Melfi, who did not comment on the administration building bill, said the water rates increased because members of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District increased costs on Girard.
The district supplies water to its member cities of Youngstown, Niles and McDonald and sells under the name Meander Water to other municipalities.
The mayor said Youngstown raised its rates 10 percent for the next five years. Niles and McDonald raised their rates 35 percent and 40 percent, respectively, for the 2011 billing cycle.
The commissioners said they will ask Girard to join the discussion at the next meeting, which they have not yet scheduled. But Melfi said he would like also to see the MVSD member cities at the table.