Thu Feb 09 2012
by Eric Marotta
and Jeff Saunders
Editor and Reporter
North Summit County -- Even if the stormwater utility fee proposed by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District doesn't come to pass, uncertainties remain over how the county and communities will deal with flooding issues themselves.
The sewer district, which encompasses most of Cuyahoga County and northern Summit County, has developed a $200 million, five-year plan to manage runoff in its service area. To pay for the plan, NEORSD has created a fee, which amounts to an average of $4.75 a month.
Summit County and area communities are fighting the plan in court. Summit County is arguing in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas that the Summit County Engineer, not the sewer district, has management authority over stormwater.
A second case on the issue, filed by the county against NEORSD in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas, is also pending.
Heidi Swindell, spokesperson for the engineer's office, said Sept. 1 that the engineer's plan, including a method of financing it, is being finalized.
She said the Summit County Prosecutor's Office is reviewing the plan. Before it's made public, attorneys "just want to make sure there's nothing in it that will interfere with the lawsuits," said Swindell.
Funding makes the difference
Stormwater became a priority following major storms and flooding in the area in the summers of 2003 and 2006, particularly in Hudson, where two men drowned in 2003.
Northfield Center township officials say they hope Summit County will help them resolve their flooding issues, but added they are also taking steps of their own.
The township is working on a $147,000 project to siphon off stormwater from residential streets around Butternut Lane, a site of heavy flooding. And Trustee Paul Buescher said the township also does routine work, such as keeping roadside ditches and catch basins clear.
However, he said, there are limits to what townships can do. He said the township doesn't have the authority to deal with issues along Brandywine Creek, a scene of past flooding.
According to Swindell, the engineer's office has authority, but is not obligated to make improvements.
Summit County District 1 Councilor Nick Kostandaras said he is seeking federal funding to help pay for stormwater improvements.
"To talk about stormwater without a plan and a way to fund it will not solve the stormwater problem," said Kostandaras.
Other communities have developed their own plans.
In Hudson, city voters approved a 1 percent income tax increase in 2004, with about half of the new revenue -- about $3.5 million annually -- going to storm and sanitary sewer infrastructure and maintenance.
The tax increase was approved after floods the year before killed two Hudson residents when floodwaters filled a basement garage in a downtown condominium complex.
How much money would cities get?
In Macedonia, the city's stormwater plan is on hold.
In fall 2006, Macedonia formed a volunteer drainage and sewer control committee which worked with a contractor to develop an infrastructure plan estimated to cost at least $1 million.
The committee proposed the city implement a utility fee to pay for the improvements, but the idea stalled over uncertainty due to the NEORSD plan and tight city finances.
"The only thing that stopped them from moving forward was funding," said Mayor Don Kuchta.
Dennis Mulac, who served as the volunteer committee's chairman, said Sept. 2 that the committee had always been suspicious of the NEORSD program and members are doubtful it will do the city much good.
"We're not big believers in this program," said Mulac.
But NEORSD believes more money from its proposed fee will go to Summit County than county property owners will pay, according to Betsy Yingling, NEORSD's manager of watershed technical support.
Yingling said the district estimates that the proposed fee will raise $2 million per year in Summit County, and NEORSD expects to do about $3 million on a series of projects along Brandywine Creek in Macedonia if its plan prevails in court.
In addition to these major projects, Yingling said the district will also do "a significant amount of maintenance" and ensure problems don't flow downstream - to Northfield Center, for example.
"We need to make sure we're not moving the flooding and causing problems for other communities," she said.
But local officials said they remain skeptical.
Kuchta said he knows nothing of projects the NEORSD might do in Macedonia and Mulac said he has "heard the numbers bantered about, but nothing official has come to us."
"I'd like to believe it's true, but a lot of it is rhetoric to make us happy, I think," he said.
Jody Roberts, Hudson's communications manager, said she could not comment on the NEORSD's proposal.
"We have had no communication that I am aware of from NEORSD indicating money has been approved for any work in Hudson," she said.
Buescher said he, too, he has doubts.
"I keep hearing these grandiose schemes, but I haven't heard any technical details," he said.
Richfield Mayor Mike Lyons, whose community is also in NEORSD's service area, said he "has reservations" about sewer district promises, but understands stormwater tends to move north from Summit into Cuyahoga County.
"The effort really needs to be collaborative," he said.
E-mail: emarotta@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3171
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