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Southington water project will be rejected, Trumbull commissioner says
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Trumbull County Commissioner Frank Fuda says the proposed water project for Southington, Champion and Warren townships won’t be moving forward since a large percentage of the affected property owners oppose it.
Fuda said responses from the affected property owners indicate residents owning 60 percent of the front footage are opposed.
Five responses postmarked by the Aug. 13 deadline arrived at the county commissioners offices on Monday, but it’s clear that the “no” votes will outweigh the “yes” votes, Fuda said.
A campaign organized by residents appears to have affected the outcome, Fuda said.
Jeff Hoover of Janice Drive said he and a few other people gathered 140 signatures of people opposed to the project out of 246 affected parcels. “Most of the people didn’t want it,” Hoover said.
Gary Newbrough, project planning director for the county’s sanitary engineering department, said he will ask the county commissioners to formally reject the project at next week’s commissioners meeting.
“People are saying their water is fine and [mentioning] all the equipment they bought to make their water drinkable,” Newbrough said of the reasons he’s gotten for rejecting the project.
Hoover said the reasons he’s gotten from people are the “cost and the elderly people who just can’t afford it, and there are a lot of elderly people on that route.”
The project would have traveled along U.S. Route 422 from the state Route 5 Bypass west into Warren and Champion townships to Leiby-Osborne Road in Southington and along Warren-Burton Road, then back to Route 422 near the Ohio State Highway Patrol barracks. It would have picked up several small roads off of Route 422.
A $49,750 feasibility study anticipated a second phase that would have brought water to the center of Southington.
Fuda said the rejection of the project is disappointing because it would have opened up Southington to development for people wanting to live there and commute to Cleveland.
Newbrough said the cost to property owners would have been less than $35 per front foot, one of the lowest costs for a water project in past 20 years.
Hoover said he’s pleased the project isn’t going forward but he wishes the county had an alternative plan that would provide water to residents in the center of the township “who need it.”