First Posted: 3/14/2015
OTTAWA — While discussions of regionalizing water and sewer services are still in their infancy in Allen County, the same conversation has been going on for the past year in neighboring Putnam County. The county is in the process of establishing the Black Swamp Regional Water and Sewer District and is gauging interest among communities and townships.
“We got a $100,000 Local Government Innovation Fund grant for this,” county commissioner John Love said. “We appointed a forming committee and went to different communities in Putnam County, along with working on the bylaws and that sort of thing.”
The district would be formed under Section 6119 of the Ohio Revised Code, meaning that it would be run by a board of trustees and not county commissioners. Once the district’s bylaws and regulations are in place, any municipal bodies in support of this district must sign a petition to be sent to Putnam County Common Pleas Court, where final approval would be given.
“We’ve had some yeses, some nos and some undecideds,” Love said.
One of the undecideds is Columbus Grove, according to village administrator Jeff Vance.
“It has been brought up to the council,” he said. “We haven’t discussed it in great depth because we want some more information on how it’s all going to play out. Our council has not decided to be in or out of it.”
For Love, this model of water and sewer service is essential in ensuring smaller communities and counties can continue to provide quality service to residents while also stabilizing rates, thanks to a larger customer base. Additional federal regulations are also forcing counties’ hands into going in this direction, Love said.
“A number of our communities have bindings and orders through the [Environmental Protection Agency], and they can’t do it alone anymore,” he said.
Jason Phillips, assistant municipal director for the village of Ottawa, is gathering information to determine if and how the village should work with the district. While the village has not made a decision, Phillips emphasized that Ottawa has already shown support for this concept in the past.
“We service the villages of Miller City and Glandorf, we sell water services to the county in what we call Putnam East and we serve the village of Bluffton, as well,” he said. “So we will always be a great advocate for regionalizing.”
If Ottawa should decide to participate, the village could be an essential cog to this project, with its 3 million-gallon-per-day water and 5 million-gallon-per-day wastewater plants each running at only 1 million gallons per day. However, one of the challenges in regionalizing, according to Phillips, comes from communities not wanting to potentially lose control over their water and sewer delivery.
“Small-town politics is a challenge,” he said. “The city of Bowling Green said it best when they said they want to be in control of their own destiny.”
For Love, the district would actually allow municipalities to retain control over water and sewer through representation.
“That’s one thing I’ve been trying to tell these communities and townships, that they will have a say in who will run this thing,” he said. “Right now, we’re not looking for contracts. We’re looking for petitioners. There’s no obligation.”
Love hopes to have a petition presented to the court before the end of the year.
