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NILES -- The water and sewer superintendent could see a $4,000 raise if council grants final approval to a measure given first reading at a recent council meeting.
Andy Catanzarite's pay could be raised to $82,000 a year. Catanzarite said he thinks he is due the raise because he obtained his Class IV license last year and didn't see a pay bump then.
The raise is "long overdue," said Councilman Ryan McNaughton, D-at Large, chair of the utilities committee. He said the wage is low compared with other Class IV operators in the state and the city ought to make the position more competitive so quality candidates are interested in the position if it opens up.
"When we eventually have to find someone else with the right qualifications to take over the plant, we need to be able to offer a competitive salary. This raise is long overdue. Not only will it make the position more attractive in the long term, it properly compensates Andy (Catanzarite) for getting his Class IV in the short term," McNaughton said.
Catanzarite, who was hired in February 2014, obtained his Class IV license through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to operate the Niles Wastewater Treatment Plant in April.
Ohio Administrative Code gives owners of Class IV plants like the one in Niles two years for a Class III operator to obtain a Class IV.
Obtaining the license can be a long process with lengthy applications that are often sent back several times and require approval from a certification board.
When Catanzarite took his position, the water and sewer funds were in a deficit, and rates were increased. Since the Ohio Auditor of State placed Niles in fiscal emergency in October 2014, the sewer department has lifted itself out of the red, and the water department is expected to do the same this year.
A 15 percent increase in water rates approved by council in 2016 took effect this month. It amounts to less than a penny more per gallon for consumers, Catanzarite said, but will bolster water department funds by about $900,000 annually.
The administration said the cash raised with the water rate increase will be used to address its aging water towers, troubled waterlines, broken fire hydrants and to install 5,000 water meters that have been collecting dust in the city's unused pool in Waddell Park.
The $35 million project to update the wastewater plant in order to comply with federal EPA standards for pollutant removal is also under Catanzarite's purview. To pay the loan for the project, consumer sewer bills were scheduled to increase 10 percent a year from 2018 to 2021 and 5 percent a year from 2022 to 2025.
McNaughton and Councilman Barry Steffey Jr., D-4th Ward, chair of the finance committee, sponsored the legislation for Catanzarite's raise.