Martins Ferry council adopts ordinance imposing fee for unmetered water loss

Martins Ferry City Council at its meeting adopted an ordinance to levy a fee for unmetered water loss, voting to suspend the rules to allow immediate reading and passage.

The measure was introduced and put forward for immediate consideration by Council Member Schramm, with a subsequent motion to pass made by Council Member Rogers and seconded by Council Member Eshman. Council took a roll-call vote and the ordinance was approved as read; an ordinance number was not specified during the meeting.

Council and staff discussed the item in the context of ongoing water-system problems reported earlier in the meeting. City staff told the council that a recent outage at the water plant had been repaired and that, when service is restored, a 24- to 48-hour boil advisory would likely be initiated; staff advised residents to monitor the city website and local news for updates. During public comment, a resident, Richardson of 1915 Virginia Street, said the most recent break was the third in the city in recent weeks and urged attention to aging infrastructure.

Council did not provide an implementation date or a fee schedule during the reading; the ordinance as presented to the council at the meeting did not include a specific citation or ordinance number on the record. No amendments were proposed during the live discussion and council did not record additional directions to staff about a timeline for implementation during the meeting.

The meeting also included routine department reports from the police and fire chiefs, who described January activity and recent calls, and public remarks about local business closures and ongoing coordination with outside agencies on related issues. The council did not take further formal action on those items at the same meeting.

The ordinance text, fee schedule, and effective date were not included in the public reading and are not specified in the meeting record.