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Sewer Plant on Shelf

Plan to remain in committee

City council shelves sewer plant proposal

Thursday, April 22, 2004

MICHAEL J. MAURER
ThisWeek Staff Writer

Pickerington City Council voted to table an increasingly controversial expansion of the city's waste water treatment plant Tuesday night and send it back to the service committee for further consideration.

However, a majority of council members said they were unlikely to support the $9-million project in any event.

Councilman Ted Hackworth was first to announce his opposition.

"There are a lot of citizens out here asking what we're doing and what our position is," he said. "I oppose it. I think it's too much."

Hackworth recited a cost-of-studies report prepared last year by a consultant that found Pickerington's per capita expenditures for all services had grown by 93 percent over a 10 year period from 1991 to 2001, but that per capita revenues had grown by only 60 percent during the same time period.

Also during the period, the city's population grew at an annual rate of 4.5 percent, Hackworth said.

The proposed sewer plant expansion, which would add 2.3 million gallons per day capacity to the existing plant, would last the city for 42 years, according to the report.

"Do we really need to look that far ahead?" Hackworth said. "We must find another option that's both smaller and cheaper. The city of Pickerington has dug a financial hole during the last 12 years."

Councilman Mike Sabatino said he believed 5 percent was a reasonable rate of growth, while councilman Brian Wisniewski said that the 5 percent growth rate was not total population, but only a portion of the population that is connected to the city's plant. Some subdivisions, including Sycamore Creek and Fox Glen, used other utility services and so would not be included in the projected growth rate.

Councilman Doug Parker said the treatment plant was intentionally oversized to give the city control over the waste water capacity of Sycamore Creek, which might be lost to another city if Pickerington did not take it now. He also said this would be the last plant the city would ever have to build.

Council President Heidi Riggs said that the city's sewer plant-related debt would be $22-million if the city went forward with the proposed expansion. She said that several of the candidates for city manager interviewed during the past three weeks have suggested the city's debt is too high.

"That's the fist thing they say, is how concerned they are with what we're looking at and the debt we're in in this city," Riggs said.

Councilman Mitch O'Brien said the city should wait for the results of a growth management plan to determine how large any treatment plant expansion should be.

"From this growth management plan, we'll have a recommended rate of growth," he said. "With that, they'll tell us how big a sewer plant we need and how soon we need it."

Sabatino said council should just go ahead and kill the plant now, rather than waste more time in committee.

"Why don't we just put a fork in this thing and be done with it?" Sabatino said.

Wisniewski said he wanted more information before killing the project, although he acknowledged he was unlikely to support it.

Councilman Bill Wright said the consultant's report indicated that Pickerington was making money on growth, with a cost of only 90 cents in city services for every dollar of revenue. He also said the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency was likely to force the city to make the plant expansion.

"They have indicated there will be sanctions and findings if we don't pursue this (plant expansion)," Wright said.

Wright also said that anyone who thought limiting growth would help alleviate overcrowding in the Pickerington Local School District was mistaken, because growth was moving to the township.

"You've got a regional approach you have to take for this (growth problem)," Wright said.

Mayor David Shaver said he had asked council to table the treatment plant expansion rather than killing it outright, because he wanted to discuss the matter with Ohio EPA. Shaver concurred with Wright's observation about growth in Violet Township.

"I agree wholeheartedly, people should be going to the township and saying, 'You should be doing home rule and putting growth restrictions in place the way the city does'," Shaver said.

In other business, council:

Passed by emergency an ordinance authorizing a contract with McBride Dale Clarion to prepare a comprehensive land use plan.

Passed by emergency an ordinance granting a variance to Cat Tracks, 836 Refugee Road, to allow sales of vehicles through 2010.

Heard the first reading of an ordinance enacting a new ethics policy for the city of Pickerington.

Heard the second reading of an ordinance authorizing the city's participation with the Ohio Department of Transportation and the city of Reynoldsburg for repaving and modifying state Route 256 at Interstate 70.

Heard the second reading of an ordinance authorizing an application for state capital improvement program funds for storm water drainage construction on Long Road.

Heard the second reading of an ordinance authorizing the issuance of notes in the amount of $2-million to realign Diley Road.

Tabled an ordinance that would have modified the issuance of new home permits issued under the city's housing moratorium, to allow permits to be transferred among different lots.

Set a public meeting for May 4, 7:15 p.m., at City Hall, for discussion of the 2005 tax budget.

Sewer plant update

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