Mapleheightspress.com - Local towns don't want to give up water lines

by Jeff Saunders

Reporter

Nordonia Hills -- While the city of Cleveland wants to take over the water works from the suburbs it supplies, and is offering millions of dollars in upgrades in return, Northfield Village is the latest Summit County town to decline the offer.

Northfield Council President Chuck Lewis said Council met Sept. 30 to talk about the proposal.

"We think our system is OK in the village at this time without turning over ownership," said Lewis. "It was the consensus that we're not interested at this time."

Cleveland Water Commissioner Chris Nielson said his agency is proposing the 20-year deal to transfer ownership of the water lines from the suburbs to Cleveland. In exchange, Cleveland Water pledges to spend at least $10 million a year over five years on capital improvement renovations to the water systems in communities that sign on.

Northfield Engineer Richard Wasosky said the village's water system dates back to the early 1960s, but is in good shape. He said it is "relatively young" considering that water systems tend to need replacing at about 75 years old.

"I suppose if this were 2025, it might be an incentive," he said.

Nielson said the agreement would also limit tax abatements the suburbs could offer to businesses that relocate to their town from Cleveland, and require the communities to share income taxes should any business move from Cleveland to the suburb, and vice-versa.

Wasosky said the tax abatement and sharing agreement would have little impact on the village because there is no land left that a sizeable business could move to and the only large business the village has is Hy-Ko Products on Meadow Lane. Wasosky said Hy-Ko is unlikely to leave since it constructed its 120,000-square-foot facility only a few years ago.

Nielson said in addition to Northfield, Cleveland Water has also met with Macedonia, Twinsburg, Reminderville, Richfield, Boston Heights and Hudson, but so far only Reminderville has signed on. He said both Twinsburg and Macedonia rejected the proposal last year.

Though Northfield Center and Sagamore Hills are also supplied by Cleveland Water, townships cannot take part in the tax-sharing aspect of the deal, he said.

Macedonia Mayor Don Kuchta said the city decided last year, on the recommendation of former City Engineer Fred Tufts, to turn down the proposal. Kuchta said he could not recall the reasons for Tuft's recommendation, but thought it had to do with costs.

"I think there were more cons than pros," said Kuchta.

Council member Jan Tulley, who served as Council president in 2007, said she recalls getting information about it when she served as acting mayor while Kuchta was ill for seven weeks in March and April 2007, but she did not know why the proposal was rejected.

"Nothing ever came before Council," said Tulley.

Nielson said that of 54 communities supplied by Cleveland, 16, including Oakwood and Bedford Heights, have signed the agreements.

While northern Summit County towns have resisted the proposal, Nielson said some suburbs with older water systems, such as Orange, have asked that Cleveland take over capital improvements.

"I think many of them can't afford to make capital improvements," said Nielson. "Secondly, I think many of them lack the technical ability to make capital improvements."

Nielson said such renovations would actually save Cleveland Water maintenance costs -- the agency is still responsible for fixing main breaks and other problems, regardless of which towns sign the agreement.

"The city of Cleveland is making a significant investment in this," he said.

But Lewis said the village is concerned about the commitment the village would have to make.

"Part of the reason we are probably not going to enter into it is they want a 20-year term," he said.

"The people in the village paid for the water lines," Wasosky said. "We'd be giving away what we paid for and why would we do that, other than to have someone else control it?"

Wasosky said he is also concerned about a provision in the agreement that would allow Cleveland to deny a connection to certain structures, but Nielson said no property owner would be denied a connection, so long as their structures met certain standards.

"Those standards apply to everyone and so far, I don't think they have caused anyone any difficulties," he said.

He also said he believes that the village's position concerning the good condition of its water system "may be true in the short term."

"I think this kind of agreement has a long-term benefit," he said.

E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169