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WARREN -- The judges who oversee operations at the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District will have a hearing with MVSD board members Dec. 21 in a Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, to get some questions answered about possible rate increases to area water customers.
In a memo dated Nov. 22 to attorney Tom Wilson, MVSD legal counsel, signed by both Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge Anthony Donofrio and Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Ronald J. Rice, the judges wrote they would like answers to their concerns about the MVSD, its operations and its current request for a water rate increase.
Wilson, in responding to the newspaper's questions, said on Nov. 17, the district filed an application for a final rate determination and request for a hearing with the court of jurisdiction.
"The district last raised its rate for water with the agreement of the members and the order of the court on July 1, 2 015," Wilson stated, noting that rate remains at $2.10 per 1,000 gallons of water.
The MVSD last month announced it is proposing three-year bulk water rate increases to pay for nearly $70 million in improvements to its facility and a water pipeline. The annual increases of 11 cents per 1,000 gallons would be billed to Youngstown, Niles and McDonald, and that could be passed along to other customers.
"The board determined the new rates will be sufficient to pay the cost of operating and maintaining the facilities of the District and to finance those capital improvements as listed in a resolution passed Oct. 26, 2022," Wilson stated.
These improvements include bringing the Meander Reservoir dam and spillway up to current Ohio EPA and Ohio Department of Natural Resources standards.
As far as operating costs, Wilson said the district has received "dramatic increases" particularly in the cost of chemicals used in the water treatment process.
At a recent MVSD board meeting, officials from Niles and McDonald indicated they would not be opposed to rate increases.
The MVSD, established under the Ohio Revised Code, formed in the 1920s to provide clean drinking water to the area's population.
"It was not designed to be nor should it ever be, a profit-making venture," the judges wrote -- noting that member cities Youngstown and Niles, along with other municipalities, profit off the markups for the resale of water "on the back of the 200,000 consumers."
Youngstown and Niles resell the water to their residents and to Girard, Canfield, Mineral Ridge, Lordstown, Craig Beach and portions of 10 other townships, including about half of Boardman.
The judges listed a host of questions that they hope can be answered at the Dec. 21 hearing. Among these are:
• Why does the MVSD need a rate increase when it operates in the black every year? Last year's profits totaled about $10 million.
• Why does MVSD need a rate increase when it currently has some $60 million in cash on hand?
• If the rate increase is going to be used to fund future capital projects, how do we ensure these funds are not spent improperly? And are these future projects to be paid with current cash or funded by the rate increases or will bonds be issued?
• What has the MVSD done to protect taxpayers, consumers and ultimately the people who will pay for this increase?
• Are MVSD member cities, and other cities who take on a 40 percent surcharge, going to absorb the cost of the increase?
• Why would the rate increase be needed for a future grant request that the MVSD has never been awarded before, and why would the public trust the MVSD that rates would be decreased if that grant would be received? The judges were talking about MVSD seeking a possible federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) outlay offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The judges also would like to see comparable rates, costs and profits of at least two other publicly owned water districts in Ohio for comparison to see how MVSD operates.
Wilson acknowledged the judges' concerns.
"The district looks forward to providing the court at the upcoming hearing the necessary documentation and testimony to confirm the reasonableness and necessity of its first rate increase in the last eight years," Wilson stated.