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City committee backs stormwater fee increase and forwards Arcadis contract for long-term control plan
Summary
City committee heard a consultant say the stormwater fund needs a rate increase — from $4 to $6 per ERU now with an automatic inflation adjustment later — and forwarded an Arcadis contract for flow monitoring and long-term control planning required by EPA orders.
The Service Committee voted to forward financing recommendations tied to the Sandusky Avenue stormwater project after a consultant warned the city’s stormwater fund has been flat since 2003 and cannot support required work.
Dylan Wyatt of McKeever & Associates told the committee the city’s stormwater fee “has been in place since about 2003, at $4 per ERU,” and that the loan application analysis for the Sandusky Avenue project recommends raising the fee to $6 now and adding a $0.60 increase next year, with an automatic inflationary adjustment thereafter.
Wyatt said outside reviewers who prepared the WPCLF loan materials recommended the increases as part of a pro forma projection and warned the loan could be contingent on a rate increase. “It is not set in stone that OWDA will hold up a loan if a rate increase doesn’t pass, but … it’s very likely,” he said.
Committee members pressed staff on account balances and recent spending. Finance staff reported the stormwater fund carried roughly $2.10 million in cash at the end of January before encumbered purchase orders; about $1.45 million remained after accounting for POs, with approximately $1 million already budgeted for the Sandusky Avenue project. Wyatt noted large recent expenditures — including an $875,000 Northwest separation phase — accounted for a swing from multi-year surpluses to a 2023 deficit.
Wyatt and staff also emphasized a related technical need: the city must install flow monitors in March to avoid missing a year of data crucial to a long-term control plan. Because U.S. EPA and Ohio EPA have taken different approaches to the city’s administrative order, Wyatt said the city must complete a two-year LTCP process after Ohio EPA issues formal findings and orders.
Separately, the committee considered an Arcadis contract to complete model calibration, flow metering and prepare the LTCP. Wyatt asked the panel to forward the Arcadis contract to finance and to consider emergency approval so monitoring and calibration can start on the required schedule. Committee members noted a portion of first-year costs are already budgeted or on purchase orders and voted to forward the contract to the finance committee for legislation.
The committee approved, by voice vote, the motion to forward the financing recommendations for the Sandusky Avenue project and the motion to forward the Arcadis contract to finance. No roll-call tally was recorded in the discussion transcript.
Next steps: finance will receive the forwarding recommendation and may schedule legislation and an emergency request for the Arcadis contract and any rate-change ordinance.
