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It will be up to Trumbull County commissioners to decide whether residents will receive higher charges to extend the lives of water tanks and keep up with an increasing pass-through rate.
The county’s water advisory panel voted 6-4 to recommend to commissioners a $2 increase to the Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer’s Replacement Improvement Fund. The vote came at a meeting Thursday in Vienna.
Brookfield Trustee Dan Suttles, Liberty Trustee Devon Stanley, Warren Township Trustee Ryan Yoho and Champion Trustee Dean Richard York cast the dissenting votes. Voting in favor were Bazetta Township Trustee Bob McBride, Hubbard Township Trustee Monica Baker, Vienna Township Trustee Phil Pegg, Southington Township Trustee Charlie Hagman, Braceville Township Trustee Jeff Tucker and Weathersfield Township Trustee Richard Harkins. Howland trustee James LaPolla was absent.
The RIF is a flat $5 charge on all customers’ bills, which would increase to $7 if commissioners approve it. The increase would go toward repairs and renovations to the county’s seven water tanks.
Dan Frum of Georgia-based USG Water Solutions, who gave a presentation to the panel when it lacked a quorum in December, said Thursday his company inspected the tanks and put together the scope of worker each, discussing them with Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer Gary Newbrough.
“We take it and we spread the cost over the course of 10 years, so that it doesn’t get hit all at once with any type of renovation or repairs,” Frum said. “And then we keep everything up to date with all of the EPA standards so that when the sanitary surveys happen, we inspect the tanks every year.”
Frum said the company cleans the tanks every three to five years and cover and warranty all the coatings that are done, adding that they provide such a service for Youngstown, Niles, Warren, Girard and Portage County.
Frum said any below-ground issues would not be covered, and insurance would still be needed on the tanks.
Frum said the estimated cost per year is $324,000 and would include all seven tanks. Bob Maiorano, comptroller at the county’s sanitary engineering department, said the $2 increase would increase the RIF fund to $276,000 a year.
“The shortage of $48,000 would be covered by the current RIFS, but it would cost $2 per account to have all of our tanks taken care of for the next 10 years,” Maiorano said. “That’s not $2 per thousand (gallons), it’s a $2 flat fee.”
Pegg, who was appointed the panel’s new chairman following former Champion Trustee Rex Fee’s resignation earlier this year, recalled Brookfield’s tank would cost an estimated $1.5 million.
Yoho questioned if the county was really in as bad of shape as it was last year, pointing out that they’re always talking about more money whenever the panel convenes.
“We raised the price on water meters, we raised the price on this, we raised the price on that,” Yoho said. “Now we’re coming back again to say, ‘Hey, it wasn’t last year, here we are again this year, let’s pound a couple more dollars down the consumer’s throat.'”
PASS-THROUGH RATE
The county’s water advisory panel voted 8-2 to recommend a $1 increase per 1,000 gallons for the 12 communities receiving the county’s water service, with Yoho and Stanley being the opposing votes. Newbrough said his office started the year with $1.252 million, but is now down to $1.013 million.
“The main reason that we’re going negative again is that we’ve been paying that pass-through of the bulk water supply – an extra 43 cents per thousand (gallons) ever since the beginning of the year,” Newbrough said. “We haven’t been able to get together here and try to get a pass-through, so we just just set it where we could break even or maybe accumulate some surplus.”
As a result of increases at the city level, Maiorano said their Bazetta, Warren Township and Mosquito Creek districts saw 8% increases, while Howland, Mineral Ridge, Youngstown, Niles and the Southeast district saw 5% increases, bumping the projected cost in 2026 to $5.5 million from $5.2 million the previous year.
Pegg said the panel was initially speaking of a 36-cent increase to recommend to commissioners in March, but the panel could not get a vote because of a lack of a quorum.
“Our bulk water costs alone, by the end of 2027, are going to be up $965,000, and not a penny of that is any Trumbull County spending,” Maiorano said. “I mean it’s not new equipment, it’s not personnel, it’s not overtime – it literally is paying the other districts for the water.”
Maiorano said their office ate the increases for as long as it could, noting their bulk water bill to be $5.1 million of $8.3 million in revenue.