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Woodbran sewer rates to get outside review
(by Sali McSherry - November 25, 2009)
Woodbran sewer rates to get outside review
By SALI McSHERRY
Plans for negotiations between Woodbran Realty Corp. and homeowners in connection with sewer rates are moving forward, according to action taken last week at the Orange Village Council meeting. The village is facilitating the negotiations.
However, Councilman Carmen Centanni opposed the action, saying council has had no say in the matter.
All other council members attending the meeting approved paying village Law Director Stephen Byron $4,000 for his part in the negotiations.
Council President Daniel Brown, who was absent from the meeting, has been working since last spring to negotiate a way to minimize the financial burden on some homeowners who must make repairs to their sanitary sewers.
Council will approve the contract for an independent party to review sewer rates, Mr. Byron said. Even though the amount of the contract is below the mayor's $15,000 spending authority, which usually relates to purchase orders of goods, council will vote on the contract, because it is for professional services, he said.
The village had advertised for bids from independent parties to review sanitary sewer rates, Mayor Kathy U. Mulcahy said. But the village had no bidders on the job. She and Mr. Brown were to discuss this week what the next move would be, she said.
Council never approved an advertisement for a sewer-rate study, Dr. Centanni said.
Ms. Mulcahy said, if a contract is approved, the village will be reimbursed for expenses associated with the negotiations.
A formal proposal will be presented to council and if it were accepted, council then would approve an ordinance establishing the rates, Mr. Byron said.
Dr. Centanni said the village should not be involved in negotiating rates for Woodbran and homeowners. Woodbran ultimately needs to be purchased by Cuyahoga County, he said. It's a little entity, it exists, and "we have to deal with it, but not on a village level," he said.
Ms. Mulcahy said Woodbran "absolutely needs to talk to us. It is our business."
Mr. Byron said the municipality has authority over utilities in the community.
Woodbran has not had a rate increase since 1994, Ms. Mulcahy said.
Five or six years ago, the village spent about $10,000 on the regulatory process with Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in Columbus, but it didn't come to fruition, Ms. Mulcahy said.
Dr. Centanni said at least four council members, whose sewer systems are connected to Woodbran, should recuse themselves from voting, or perhaps six members, because they took campaign contributions from the Kertesz family, which owns the facility.
Ms. Mulcahy disagreed and said there are services that all residents or a portion of residents share, such as sewer connections to the Woodbran facility. Council members, like their neighbors, did not have a say in the matter, she said, and they're not involved in the negotiations.
Mr. Brown had been working on the negotiations, and he has kept council updated on the process, Ms. Mulcahy said.
Last spring, the company gave 70-plus residents of the Orangewood subdivision a reprieve while it started to negotiate a plan with the village. In fall 2008, Woodbran initially told residents they had to remove all clean-water connections from their sewer systems. In some cases, residents would have faced paying thousands of dollars in repairs.
About 500 households that are connected to Woodbran's sewer system potentially could have the same problem in the future, Mr. Brown said.
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