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BOARDMAN -- The township has largely reversed a decision to increase right-of-way permitting fees.
Trustees on Monday approved a resolution by road superintendent Kim Blasco to restore Boardman's former fee schedule, with some slight alterations that she says give the township a bit more oversight with utility companies' activities.
Austintown Township also recently reversed some of its changes after Enbridge Ohio Gas refused to take out permits in the township, calling fee increases unreasonable and oppressive.
"Back in March went ahead and increased the permit fees, just because they hadn't been adjusted in many years. In doing so, we wanted to include inspection, but we received a lot of pushback in regard to the increased fees," Blasco said. "So what we decided to do was lower them back nearly where they were before and then include an inspection fee directly related to what the engineering cost was going to be for the inspection."
The fees were adjusted from $1,000 to $250 per open cut location, and any open cut made without a permit will incur a $500 fine. The permit fee for boring across a road was reduced from $50 to $25. Standard work in right-of-way permit fees remains at $25 for a single address or location, and the work in the right-of-way fee for long-line installations will begin at $100 per road, up to 10 properties and increase by $25 for every five properties disturbed beyond that.
The resolution states that the inspection costs from an engineering company will be presented to the utility company with a minimum number of weekly hours for which they are responsible, and all inspection costs will result directly from the engineering company's billing.
The resolution states that inspection will be conducted at the township's discretion, per Blasco or township administrator Mark Ragozine.
"The permit fees are more in line with our time and effort and material related to review and coordinating with the utility company in regards to getting things moving," Blasco said. The township's hired inspectors will spend four to eight hours per week on each project underway in the township, tracking the utility work through GIS.
"We will see exactly where they're working, where they've been, they're going to keep tabs on them and make sure they don't get too far ahead before they go back and restore," she said. "If there's any complaints, the residents have somebody there they can go to and be the liaison between the contractor and us and they are there just to keep things in check."
Blasco noted that the $500 fine does not come with an obligation to also purchase a permit. So, those who operate without permits will not be required to pay the permit fee retroactively in addition to the fine.
Last week, Austintown came to an agreement with Enbridge after construction on a resident's new home was held up because the gas company would not pull a permit, citing the township's increased fees.
Administrator Mark D'Apolito said the negotiations came down to the township understanding that service line connections running from existing mains to new homes or businesses did not require the same degree of planning and surveying or carry the same risks as running lines along the road for great lengths.
"We were overly broad in what we were applying the increased fee to," he said. "We didn't need the review and the larger fee for straight service connections."
So the township dropped its fee from $2,000 to $1,000 and made that and the review and survey requirements applicable only to new underground longitudinal (along the road) installations.
Single service line installations reverted back to either $25 or $250, depending on what kind of cutting needs to be done and where.
Right-of-way permitting has become something of a hot-button issue in recent weeks, with utility companies and local governments battling over increased fees and regulations. Often, the townships have had to reverse or considerably amend their decisions.
Similarly, the city of Girard has imposed a moratorium on most utility work in the public right-of-way, pending the results of a report from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. That comes after an April 30 explosion that destroyed a house on North State Street and left a family homeless. The explosion seemingly occurred when a contractor for Lumos struck an Enbridge gas line while boring under the road.
Girard Mayor Mark Zuppo said the report is mostly complete and is awaiting final approval from the PUCO legal team.
At the same time, Lumos has filed a federal complaint against Mahoning County for what it calls prohibitive and costly right-of-way regulations.
On July 17, Lumos filed a petition for declaratory ruling with the Federal Communications Commission asking the board to preempt certain requirements imposed by Mahoning and Stark counties.