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Public Service committee advances water and sanitation contracts, and a $10M lead-service replacement plan
Summary
The Public Service, Public Utilities and Green Committee moved multiple items to its consent agenda, including contracts for commercial backflow inspections, a three-year extension with ADS Environmental for rain-gauge and flow monitoring, three water-plant construction projects, a lead service line replacement program (just under $10 million with approximately 53% principal forgiveness), and a lease for two split-body sanitation trucks to improve efficiency.
The Public Service, Public Utilities and Green Committee advanced several ordinances to the consent agenda and approved a suspension of the rules to secure two in-stock split-body sanitation trucks.
Service Director Chris Lehi described multiple items the committee considered. For commercial cross-connection control inspections, Lehi said the legislation would allow the city to enter into a contract with Backflow Solutions Incorporated to perform cross-connection inspections at nonresidential addresses and to submit required records to Ohio EPA. "We solicit quotes to several backflow certified companies and we received... BSI is the current company we've been dealing with... this will allow us to enter into a contract with them to do a one-time cross-connection survey," Lehi said.
Lehi also presented a three-year extension with ADS Environmental Services LLC to maintain and monitor rain gauges and flow instrumentation used in the city's CSO modeling and compliance work. He described three capital projects at the Akron Water Plant — filter building drainage and waterproofing, automatic actuators for 36-inch sluice gates on sediment basins to replace manual crank gates, and tuckpointing and masonry repairs to century-old buildings — and said these projects were in the capital budget and would be publicly advertised for bids.
On a large, separate item, Lehi detailed the 2027 lead service line replacement program to address remaining uncertain galvanized services. He said the project is "just under $10,000,000" and that the city received about "53% principal forgiveness from Ohio EPA," with the remainder financed at 0% interest through available loan terms. "So this isn't gonna cost the homeowner anything," Lehi said, but he noted interior work to bring a line into the house — if required — would be homeowner responsibility and could cost around $3,500.
The committee moved the consent items by voice vote. For the split-body sanitation trucks, Lehi explained the vehicles have two compartments so one truck and driver can handle recycling and trash for households served under a medical waiver, saving fuel and driver hours; the committee suspended the rules with a favorable report to enable procurement of in-stock vehicles.
Next steps: items advanced to the council consent agenda and the split-body truck lease will be presented to full council for approval.
