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DEAR EDITOR:
It is necessary to clarify recent comments made by the Girard mayor regarding the new 20-year water agreement between Trumbull County and Girard for water service to part of Liberty.
About 1,500 affected Liberty users pay an estimated $400,000 annual premium to the city, over city ratepayers, for the privilege of that water service. (Weathersfield users pay an estimated $107,000 premium). Users to the north and south of us in the county and Youngstown pay less than half our $17.35 per thousand-gallon rate! Since Girard users pay approximately only $5.25 for their purchased water, the city is by far the largest of "several layers of upcharging" resulting in that rate.
Municipalities do not have funds of their own. All revenues come from user fees, property taxes, income taxes, etc. That said, investments the city has made in the water district are wholly paid through water fees collected from water consumers. New water meters for the district cost approximately $1.6 million and were financed with a loan from Capital One Public Finance. It was paid off in 2019. No rate reduction was subsequently offered. The East Drive waterline project was a $176,000 project, but local ratepayers assumed only $37,500 of that cost! The balance was paid for by the county and a grant.
The Girard Lakes boondoggle was paid for with a $2.5 million loan from the OWDA and repaid by water district users. That loan was paid off in 2018; no rate reduction was subsequently offered. It is my hope that should the lakes ever be sold that the collected funds will be properly used to offer water users a rate reduction. The $400,000 Liberty premium goes a long way toward paying off those capital costs. The mayor needs to be more transparent with project details and funding sources.
"I hope we do not have to hear about it for another 20 years," was a comment made by the mayor concerning the new agreement. This is exactly the mindset that concerns county water users since there is no unilateral "opt out" clause in the agreements. Should area municipalities, excluding Girard, elect to pursue water regionalization, there is no way that Liberty residents, under the new agreement, will be able to participate.
Another recent article regarding the city use of speed cameras quotes the mayor saying, "We're in the business of protecting citizens and pedestrians and raising revenue."
Like the city of Hubbard, the city of Girard should immediately commission an outside study of its water rates to publicly determine that current water rates are necessary and only used to fund the water department operations and capital needs.
JODI K. STOYAK
Liberty