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Closed-door MVSD meeting set for today
MINERAL RIDGE
With an urgent need for a new chief engineer looming, the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District’s board of directors will conduct a special closed-door meeting at 4 p.m. today at district headquarters to discuss personnel and legal issues.
Matthew J. Blair, board president, and Alan Tatalovich, district secretary/treasurer, said they expect the board will immediately go into executive (closed-door) session at the start of the meeting.
After the executive session, the board may vote on conducting a chief engineer search but won’t immediately hire anyone for that position, Blair said.
“We’re going to consult with the Ohio EPA and look at our options and make a good decision,” Blair said in an interview.
One of the legal questions to be explored is whether the board may hire a company to perform the chief engineering function, he said.
A possible advantage of hiring a company is that it would have a staff of engineers “with multiple eyes” to analyze issues, rather than having to rely on one person, he said.
“Whoever fills the position has to be extremely qualified because we have a lot going on,” Blair said, referring to valve replacements and $28 million worth of dam repairs.
MVSD supplies treated Meander Reservoir water to Youngstown, Niles and surrounding communities.
The district’s current chief engineer, Thomas Holloway, who had agreed to remain in that position until June 30, 2017, has accelerated his departure to Jan. 22, according to a news release from Blair.
Holloway came out of retirement to re-assume the chief engineer duties a year ago because the acting chief engineer, Anthony Vigorito. lacked the qualifications to continue in that role.
Besides Holloway, whom it decided to rehire, MVSD had considered hiring MS Consultants, a Youngstown engineering firm, a year ago to assume chief engineering duties at the district.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency requires the operator of a treatment plant the size of MVSD’s to have a Class 4 operator’s license.
MVSD requires that its chief engineer have or obtain both the Ohio EPA-issued Class 4 license and a professional engineering certificate.
In its Dec. 14 board meeting, MVSD announced its intention to recruit a person or company to assume chief engineering duties at the district.
In his news release, Blair said a rumor that MVSD plans to hire a management company and eliminate all of its management personnel is false.
He also said some of the four MVSD employees displaced by plant modernization are dissatisfied because of their reassignment to other tasks within the district, but he said they have not been separated from the district.