Vienna Trustee Phil Pegg, fronting for a group of township officials, including Brookfield’s, that want to explore changes to water service in their communities, told Trumbull County commissioners Jan. 13 that Aqua Ohio, the township officials’ preferred water provider, is having trouble getting information it needs from the county to complete a study.
Officials from Brookfield, Vienna, Hubbard Township, Hubbard city and Aqua met in July to see if Aqua would be interested in taking over some of the Trumbull County water system, and expanding water service to areas that do not have it, particularly along Route 7 between Hubbard and Yankee Lake.
An Aqua official said the company is interested in exploring the issues, and that the state is generally supportive of regionalization efforts.
promoThe reasons for each township’s officials wanting to change the water provider vary. Brookfield officials spoke of favoring having one provider of water service in the township instead of two – the county and Aqua provide water to parts of the township; bringing water service to more of Route 7, which officials believe has development potential; distrust of Niles, which provides water to parts of the Trumbull County system and has sought to annex lands that receive its water; and the perception that Aqua provides better quality water that does not damage appliances.
Pegg told the commissioners that Liberty Township also is interested in the effort.
“We’re asking Aqua to give us a study to present to commissioners,” Pegg said. “They’re having some difficulty obtaining the information they need to do the study, so the townships are going to put together a letter with those needed items and presentable to you or the sanitary engineer’s office.”
Commissioner Frank Fuda told Pegg, “I attended the last meeting that you had with the three townships and Mr. (Trumbull County Engineer Randy) Smith. At that time, I explained to you it’s up to the three townships to get all of their facts together and, once you have your facts together, present it to the commissioners.”
“That will be happening,” Pegg said.
“And, as far as Aqua’s concerned, they were supposed to bring some information back,” Fuda said. “I haven’t heard from them.”
“They haven’t been able to obtain the information that they needed to complete their reports,” Pegg responded.
Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said, “We want to make sure that our department is complying with all public record requests.”
Brookfield Trustee Gary Lees, who did not attend the commissioners’ meeting, said there is nothing concrete to say about the effort, yet.
“We need to put all our ducks in a row, first,” he said. Jan. 25, adding that he had not seen the letter Pegg said would be drafted.