High water rates plague Cardington council

By EVELYN LONG –

The mat­ter of the high water bills was dis­cussed again when Card­ing­ton Vil­lage Coun­cil met in reg­u­lar ses­sion on April 16, 2012

Heather Deskins, a South Mar­ion Street res­i­dent who had ques­tioned the high rates dur­ing an ear­lier coun­cil meet­ing, said that she had gone online and learned that, “our ordi­nances that are online are not up to date, so I called and was given the cur­rent rates.” She cal­cu­lated the changes over the last five years and deter­mined that there has been a 291% increase in the base rate, the oper­a­tions and man­age­ment and debt ser­vice has gone up about 45% over the last five years.

The base sewer rate has gone up 141% and the oper­a­tions and man­age­ment and debt ser­vice has gone up 21% over the last five years. She said she feels, “the rate increases are stag­ger­ing,” and inquired as to how “we could go up over 300% in our base rate for water.”

She sug­gested if coun­cil has the author­ity to put a board together or com­mit­tee to review the water rates for the com­mu­nity, she she is a CPA and vol­un­teered to serve on any such committee.

Mayor Susie Pey­ton said she, “can­not fix what has hap­pened in the past, and she is review­ing the cur­rent rates. She fur­ther noted that in the past the Gen­eral Fund sub­si­dized the water/sewer funds but “we can no longer do this due to the lack of funds, we have lost busi­nesses so the income tax is less than it was.”

Vil­lage Solic­i­tor Jim Dietz explained there was a non profit orga­ni­za­tion that did a rate study pretty much the whole year of 2010 and their rec­om­men­da­tion was that the Util­ity Fund should be self sus­tain­ing and they never have been. He said income tax dol­lars were used in the past to sup­ple­ment the sewer and water funds and what is the cost now includes the actual costs plus future main­te­nance and cap­i­tal improve­ments that have not been in there in the past. “We are try­ing to change from using cur­rent funds to fund future cap­i­tal improve­ment to have money specif­i­cally for this.” He noted that the vil­lage spent a year with pro­fes­sion­als to ana­lyze the figures.

When Deskins asked the num­ber of res­i­dents being billed for ser­vice, she was told it is 700. The num­ber for sewer is about the same. Deskins also asked about the vil­lage audit and was told by Deb­bie DiLeo, fis­cal offi­cer, that there has been an audit.

Deskins also asked if there has been any­thing done to min­i­mize any of the costs with the water depart­ment, such as giv­ing rebates for energy/water sav­ing res­i­dents to reduce their water usage. The answer was neg­a­tive. Dietz explained that cost sav­ing mea­sures were put in place in gen­eral in terms of work­ing with the engi­neer but there are no incen­tives to use less water. Deskins then noted that her fam­ily had com­pleted such cost sav­ing mea­sures and as a result, their water usage dropped by 1,700 gal­lons. She said she felt incen­tives for vil­lagers to use less water would be helpful.

Mayor Pey­ton stated it is not as much about using less water as that “we need to gen­er­ate funds to take care of the Cap­i­tal Improve­ments and things that have to be done.

“This water change was not done overnight — it was reviewed for about 18 months coun­cil is also feel­ing the pain of pay­ing high rates.” She did state that there is to be a sewer plant upgrade and “we may be able to cut chem­i­cal expenses with it. We are try­ing every­thing we can.”

Stacey Hines of Water Street, was present to voice his con­cerns about a prop­erty line dis­pute that dates back to when the Phase 1 Water line replace­ment was made and a pin was removed by the con­trac­tors that marked his prop­erty line. Danny Wood, act­ing vil­lage admin­is­tra­tor, said he had vis­ited the prop­erty and found only three of the four prop­erty pins. Wood said it had been sur­veyed but there is a dis­pute between what the sur­vey says between him and his neigh­bor and two dif­fer­ent sur­vey com­pa­nies. In addi­tion, there is an alley that was aban­doned so half of the alley belongs to him, he said. Deitz explained that when an alley is vacated the statute states who gets what part of the prop­erty. When asked by Deitz how it was left with the sur­vey­ors Hines said one said he will not change it and the other said if we need his help, let him know. When asked by Dietz what he wants the vil­lage to do, Hines said he wants the vil­lage to have his lot fixed by hav­ing the pin replaced in the cor­rect spot-and agreed to hav­ing the vil­lage send a surveyor.

In other mat­ters, coun­cil approved an ordi­nance which amends the per­ma­nent appro­pri­a­tions for the fis­cal year end­ing Decem­ber 31, 2012.DiLeo explained na addi­tional $2,500 was added to pub­lic safety from the gen­eral fund for the dump­sters for the smaller trash clean up.

The first read­ing of and ordi­nance cre­at­ing the posi­tion of Vil­lage Man­ager was met with oppo­si­tion by Coun­cil­man Richard Cald­well, who said the job descrip­tion was “too cum­ber­some for one indi­vid­ual.” In response to his ques­tion, Mayor Pey­ton said it was not reviewed by the Per­son­nel Com­mit­tee but was reviewed at the most recent work ses­sion. Cald­well said he “did not want to set some­body up to not be able to do what we are ask­ing them to do.” Coun­cil­man Tim Abra­ham inquired “Isn’t all this already hap­pen­ing?” Mayor Pey­ton stated that presently Deb­bie (Di– Leo), the vil­lage fis­cal offi­cer and the pro­posed vil­lage man­ager, is han­dling every­thing that is in this job descrip­tion with out help. The mayor’s rec­om­men­da­tion was that the vil­lage hie part time help to sup­port her with pay­roll and financials.

Cald­well then asked if it is already being done, why “do we need another person.”

The mayor stated that Deb­bie is work­ing a large amount of hours and she does not think it is fair to her. “On Rec Board days, Deb­bie has a 13 hour day and that is not in addi­tion to this descrip­tion.” The mayor fur­ther stated that she (DiLeo) wants the posi­tion and feels she is very able to do it. Coun­cil­woman Sherry Gra­ham, noted this will be reviewed at the end of the year because it is tech­ni­cally only temporary.

The mayor said there will be two con­tracts with DiLeo, the one they were review­ing that evening was her present con­tract and then she will have a sup­ple­men­tal contract.

Cald­well said he felt the descrip­tion was vague and very hur­ried and rushed and put together in that manner.

The vote was three nays and three yeas. Vot­ing “no” were Coun­cil­man Cald­well, Randy Fox and Coun­cil­woman Vickie Wise. Mayor Pey­ton broke the tie by voting

“Yes.”

The vote was the same on the first read­ing of an ordi­nance appoint­ing DiLeo as vil­lage man­ager and the mayor again broke the tie by vot­ing ‘yes.”

The ordi­nance accept­ing the job descrip­tion for the posi­tion of admin­is­tra­tor for the vil­lage was also given a first read­ing result­ing in the same tie vote and the mayor broke the tie, vot­ing “yes.”

The ordi­nance given a first read­ing reap­point­ing DiLeo as vil­lage fis­cal offi­cer was approved on a vote of 4–2. Vot­ing against it were coun­cil mem­bers Fox and Wise.

A first read­ing of a res­o­lu­tion appoint­ing Danny Wood as vil­lage admin­is­tra­tor was approved on a vote by the mayor when a 3 — 3 tie vote was made. Vot­ing “no,” were coun­cil mem­bers Cald­well, Fox and Wise.

Coun­cil autho­rized the mayor to adver­tise for a tem­po­rary part time office assis­tant for four hours per day. The mayor noted that regard­less of the hir­ing of the vil­lage admin­is­tra­tor and vil­lage man­ager, “we still need this per­son. If we decide later to hire a vil­lage admin­is­tra­tor we still need some­one here in the interim, this is a tem­po­rary part time person.”

Giv­ing the police depart­ment report was Robert Hus­ton, Act­ing Chief of Police, who said that since Jan­u­ary 1, 2012, the depart­ment has issued 174 warn­ings and 61 citations.

He said the depart­ment was awarded sev­eral small items from the United States Gov­ern­ment from the D. R. M. O. Pro­gram includ­ing mul­ti­ply cloth­ing items and a $300 tool box. The 2008 cruiser had to have a water pump replaced and the 2010 cruiser had been ser­viced. The 2008 cruiser is again out of ser­vice for fan work.

The police depart­ment had received two first aid boxes from the Hub­bard Police Depart­ment through the D. R. M. O pro­gram and they were filled with mul­ti­ple first aid items and placed in both cruis­ers for duty use.

The Explor­ers Unit has made $206 sell­ing 550 para­cord sur­vival bracelets .

Offi­cer Sto­ica attended a C. I. T class in Delaware on April 9, 2012 and is now cer­ti­fied to teach this to the rest of the depart­ment. This was the free class that was funded by the $750 grant they had received.

There was a lengthy dis­cus­sion prompted by APC Huston’s expla­na­tion of an offer from DRMO to get a free HUMVEE. He said the vehi­cle, prob­a­bly a 1994–95, could be used by the street and water depart­ments or other depart­ments and could be taken back at any time. It would be free. He said it could be sent back if they didn’t like it. A lengthy dis­cus­sion fol­lowed and the con­sen­sus was that “they should go for it.”

In other mat­ters, coun­cil agreed to fill the local swim­ming pool for the first time as has been the cus­tom, at no charge. When Coun­cil­man Abra­ham asked how much the cost would be, he was told “around $1,500.”

A first read­ing was given an ordi­nance autho­riz­ing the mayor to com­plete and sub­mit the Ohio Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency– sub­di­vi­sion of Sur­face Water 2012 Sur­face Water Improve­ment Fund Grant appli­ca­tion. The mayor reminded the coun­cil that this is for a park­ing lot for Maxwell Park and is a grant for up to $100,000 with no match.

The interim vil­lage admin­is­tra­tor, Danny Wood, reported that the depart­ment had patched pot holes, made curb and side­walk repair in the down­town area, com­pleted land­scap­ing in front of the munic­i­pal build­ing, power washed the bricks around the flag pole and filled a sink­hole on Gilead Street.

Fis­cal Offi­cer DiLeo said that quar­terly pay­roll reports had been filed, the unem­ploy­ment reports filed and the March pen­sion reports were com­pleted. She had also filed an insur­ance claim for the elec­tric surge dam­age incurred with the fire alarm sys­tem and the phone system.

She had received notice from the Mor­row County Trea­surer of a pend­ing inher­i­tance tax check for $29,500 which has not arrived yet.

Coun­cil adjourned the 77-minute reg­u­lar meet­ing and entered exec­u­tive ses­sion on the basis of ORC 121.22 (G) (1) and (G) (3). The exec­u­tive ses­sion ended 66 min­utes later with no fur­ther action taken.

Coun­cil will meet next on May 7 at 7 pm.

Posted by Randa Wagner on May 2 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.