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Meander Dam repairs jeopardize MVSD rebates to Youngstown and Niles
By Jordan Cohen
MINERAL RIDGE
The cost of repairs for the Meander Dam will determine whether Youngstown and Niles will receive sizable rebates from the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.
Atty. Matt Blair, a member of the MVSD board of directors, said the water provider is in a favorable cash position to offer a rebate totaling $5 million, but not if repairs to the dam prove to be extensive and costly.
The results of an engineering study are expected in July, and its findings will determine whether rebates can be allocated.
“We have a situation at Meander Dam and we’re looking at what could be major repairs,” Blair said. “If the repairs have to be done [immediately], there will be no rebates.”
Blair said there is no danger of a dam breach or anything catastrophic despite the necessity of repair work.
“The engineers have not reported anything that would indicate we have an immediate problem out there we have to handle,” Blair said.
The board member said the only way the MVSD will be able to offer rebates is if repairs can be completed in phases over several years.
The rebate possibility became public last week when Niles Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia revealed that the MVSD was considering offering a $1 million rebate to the city, a figure he admitted he had yet to confirm.
“I haven’t done the calculations, but my inkling is it would be in the $800,000 to $1 million range,” Blair said.
Scarnecchia’s comments during a city council finance committee meeting did not sit well with council President Robert Marino, who said the mayor spoke too soon.
“I think it was very premature of the mayor to bring up the possibility of the rebate,” Marino said. “We don’t know where things stand, and the [MVSD] doesn’t either.”
In Youngstown, Harry L. Johnson III, the city’s water commissioner, said he is neither counting nor planning on the city receiving any MVSD money.
“If it happens, it happens, but I haven’t given it any thought,” Johnson said. “Right now, we’re in a holding pattern.”
In Johnson’s view, there should be no question about Youngstown receiving the lion’s share of the money should it become available.
“We contribute 75 percent of the revenue [so] it should be allotted in the same manner,” Johnson said. Using that calculation, Youngstown would receive at least $3,750,000. Blair said that Youngstown “has asked for a bigger rebate.”
Blair said the two cities have to agree on the rebate before it could be submitted to a court of jurisdiction for approval. All rebated money would be exclusively for each city’s water department.
Scarnecchia said Niles’ rebate would fund the repair of 90 broken hydrants, 30 of which have to be replaced, and installation of new water meters, a project that has been on hold due to lack of funds and people. Niles has been in fiscal emergency since October 2014.
Johnson said he is more concerned about the status of the dam and the future of MVSD finances than he is about any possible rebate.
“It’s most important to make sure they have the money to make the necessary improvements,” Johnson said.
The MVSD, created in 1926, has never offered a rebate to its member cities.
“I know the cities are anxious,” Blair said. “It’s some benefit to us for them to have more efficient operations, but we haven’t made that decision yet – and we can’t.”