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Canfield residents question ABC Water district fees
CANFIELD
Township residents grilled ABC Water and Storm Water District board member Keith Rogers on Tuesday about new property assessments to fund stormwater upgrades in the area, as well as a proposal to bring Youngstown water to township residents.
The district, formed in 2009, has begun collecting special assessments from Boardman and Canfield township residents based on their properties’ total “nonpervious” surface area – area that doesn’t absorb stormwater – based on a state law established in 1982.
“I don’t think it’s right for people who don’t have anything to do with that stormwater system [to be] assessed,” said Frank Schill of county-owned South Turner Road. Officials should instead charge property developers who create the large swaths of nonpervious surfaces that lead to runoff issues, he said.
“Just because you live on a county or a state route, you’re still part of the watershed for the ABC district territory,” Rogers said. “Your stormwater runoff could be affecting someone downstream.”
Chester Kaschak of South Palmyra Road asked why Austintown trustees were able to vote against the assessment for Austintown residents.
“Why didn’t we get a chance to vote on this?” he said. “I opened my checkbook for you to spend my money the way you want it.”
Rogers said the township may elect later to approve the district’s assessments, which create infrastructure dollars for the communities in which they’re raised.
In an unrelated matter, the district also is working with Youngstown on a bulk water purchase agreement, and intends to run new municipal waterlines to about 800 current and future township homes now drawing well water.
Wayne Carkido, also of South Palmyra, questioned Rogers’ previous statements to The Vindicator indicating homeowners would be required to tie into the new water system upon selling their home. Carkido said he believes state code allows for approved water wells and only mandates sewer upgrades or mitigation of public health concerns.
Rogers said he would confer with the district’s attorney.
Regardless, Carkido said he was wary of the estimated cost for such a system or potential future assessments. “A lot of people have been there 20 or 30 years, and they’re coming up on their retirement,” Carkido said. “Some of the elderly residents – the hardships they’re going to have. A lot of them wouldn’t be able to afford it.”