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Youngstown council delays raising sanitary rates, repeals anti-begging law
YOUNGSTOWN
City council approved legislation to replace its anti-begging law, accept a former grocery-store location as a gift and demolish four fire-damaged properties on Market Street, but held off on a proposal to raise residential sanitary rates to fund demolition.
The decision to not approve the 68-percent sanitary rate increase – along with a resolution to reduce water rates by 30 percent Dec. 1 – didn’t come as a surprise Wednesday. That’s because council members said Sept. 30 that they needed more information and were seeking answers to questions they have.
Some council members want the city to consider borrowing a large sum of money to do a major demolition project now.
Finance Director David Bozanich, however, pointed to state law that says the city isn’t permitted to borrow millions to take down houses.
But Councilwoman Annie Gillam, D-1st, said she wants a legal opinion from the city law department on that issue.
She also said that perhaps the city should look at lowering the water rate by 15 percent rather than 30 percent, and not increasing the sanitation rate by as much.
“We want to know what the figures would be like,” she said.
A study of the city’s water rates includes the 15-percent scenario.
It would have the water-fund surplus at $12.7 million by 2019, compared with a $3.5 million surplus if rates are cut by 30 percent. It ended last year with a $13.8 million surplus.
Council may meet next week to discuss the rates and the borrowing possibility, and vote to approve the administration’s recommendations at its next meeting, Oct. 21, or wait until November to approve it, Gillam said.
Mayor John A. McNally wants council to vote at its next meeting.
But he said: “We will try to answer their questions and their residents’ questions so legislation can move forward.”
The administration wants to increase sanitation rates from $14.75 a month to $24.75 by July 1, 2016.
In a full year, that would generate $2.64 million that would be used to demolish about 250 vacant structures annually.
To offset that $10 increase, the administration wants to cut water rates for city residents by 30 percent. That would reduce the average Youngstown water customer’s cost by about $9, Bozanich said.
Meanwhile, council approved repealing its anti-begging law and replacing it with an improper-solicitation ordinance. It restricts when and where a person can ask for money, but doesn’t outright ban it as the old law did.
Also Wednesday, council voted to have the board of control accept the former Bottom Dollar Food full-service grocery store location on Glenwood Avenue from ALDI Inc., the property’s owner. The only cost is up to $5,000 in closing fees.
The city will seek proposals from businesses interested in the location, with the main goal being to have another grocery store open there.
Council authorized the board of control Wednesday to pay $60,000 to All Excavating of Youngstown for demolishing four structures – 2710, 2712, 2716 and 2720 Market St. – heavily damaged in an August fire in the city’s Uptown area.