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Council introduces contract with AECOM for West Gahanna sanitary relief sewer; member urges exploring debt options
Summary
Council introduced ordinance 0022-2025 to hire AECOM for design of the West Gahanna sanitary relief sewer; Councilmember Schnetzer urged the administration to explore debt-financing and Ohio Water Development Authority programs to help fund a slate of large enterprise projects.
Gahanna City Council on May 19 introduced ordinance 0022-2025 to authorize the mayor to contract with AECOM for professional design services on the West Gahanna sanitary relief sewer project and to authorize related supplemental appropriations.
The ordinance, read into the record as part of section f (ordinances for introduction), would also authorize contracting and declare an emergency for expedited work on the sanitary relief project. No adoption vote occurred at introduction; the ordinance was presented for first reading.
Councilmember Schnetzer, who later commented on the ordinance during council remarks, praised the movement toward design work and urged the administration to consider financing options beyond pay-as-you-go capital. "Debt financing can come in multiple forms from an outright public sale to a private placement," Schnetzer said, and he recommended assessing programs such as the Ohio Water Development Authority. He added that "their financing terms at the moment are sometimes a hundred basis points cheaper than anything that we're seeing in the public markets," and suggested the city's municipal advisor could weigh in on structure and timing.
Schnetzer framed the point as part of a broader funding challenge: the city's capital project list includes a number of enterprise-system projects that together exceed $100 million, and he asked staff to consider how best to fund the queue of prioritized infrastructure investments.
The ordinance was listed alongside other introductions (T&M Associates for utility owner representation and Professional Pavement Services for a sidewalk maintenance program) and will return for later committee or consent consideration. City staff and council did not adopt ordinance 0022 at the May 19 meeting.
Why this matters: the sanitary relief sewer project addresses capacity and infrastructure in the West Gahanna area; financing decisions will affect enterprise fund balances, rate-setting and long-term capital planning.
Direct quotes in this article are from Councilmember Schnetzer and the ordinance text read into the record.
