City makes case for altering street levy

BUCYRUS – The city of Bucyrus has a three-pronged plan in place to pay for the first phase of a huge sewer separation project that will ultimately cost tens of millions of dollars over the next few decades.

For that plan to work, however, the city’s voters are going to have to sign off on an alteration of an existing street levy in November that would allow for the diversion of some levy funds for sewer work. Letters went out to residents this week explaining the city’s plan, as well as why the city finds itself on the cusp of the biggest infrastructure project in its history. It’s being mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“We’ve been on their list for 15 years, and now we’re at the top of their list. They’ve been fairly patient with us getting things done. They were initially looking at maybe a $50 million project and wanted it done in 20 years, and we just looked at them with blank faces,” Council president Sis Love said.

“There wasn’t any way in the world our community could afford that. We’ve worked with our representatives in the statehouse and Washington, and there just is not infrastructure money available. It was either $72 or $76 that they wanted us to put on every utility bill every month to pay for that.”

Working with Arcadis, an engineering consulting firm, the city made the EPA a counter-offer, breaking the project down into three phases, with the first focused on the old Buffalo Run, which runs under the most densely populated part of the city. That first, seven-year phase is estimated to cost $8.4 million.

To pay for it the city is hiking the sewer portion of residents’ utility bills by 3 percent a year for the next five years, which works out to an additional 15 cents for every unit of water used. Residents will also see a new monthly charge of $7.20, which the city is calling an EPA fee.

“None of this money is being spent because we want to spend it. We are being told to spend it, essentially, and we’ve come up with what I think is the most cost-effective way to do it,” City Law Director Rob Ratliff said.

Mayor Jeff Reser said, “The whole purpose of it is to comply with the EPA’s mandates and make sure we keep our overflows to a minimum. We’re running about 60 to 70 per year. This past month has been terrible.”

For the first two parts of the funding plan to work as is, however, voters are going to have to do their part, city officials said. The street levy has brought in from $1.2 million to $1.6 million annually over the past several years.

“This is money that’s already being collected, it’s money that we already have. We feel we can still do a good job with our annual paving while using up to 25 percent of it on the sewer project,” Love said.

“The plan is dependent on that money being part of it, so we would have to look elsewhere (if the November ballot issue fails). We know there’s no grant money. We have no other option, I don’t believe, except that that $7.20 would not be sufficient.”

Reser said, “We’ve had some growth in that fund and I don’t think it’s going to affect it. People are going to ask what’s going to happen to our streets. Will they suffer? I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

The street levy, which currently runs for six years — the city is halfway through the latest renewal — dates back to 1988, when it was used only for paving. It was altered during the 1990s to help pay for curb work and purchase of equipment devoted to street work.

“What were our priorities in 1988 and what are our priorities now? We’ve had some expansion, the new subdivisions, and we’ve brought them up to what the standards are now. Our community’s 30 years older, and we have different needs now,” Love said.

“You think of what Bucyrus looked like 100, 150 years ago, there wasn’t asphalt. Everything just soaked into the ground. Drainage is an issue now, and Mother Nature’s going to dump on you, that’s a given,” Reser said.

Love observed that drainage has become more of an issue in the city since it started paving its alleys.

“We’re trying to prepare the community for the next 50, 75, 100 years, long after we’re gone. It looks like it’s the right time to jump. We’ve gotten some reasonableness from the EPA. They’re willing to work with small communities, knowing that we have limited abilities,” the mayor said.

“For some people on fixed incomes, this is a substantial cost to them, so we are trying to make this as easy as possible to everyone by spreading it out for as long as we can.”

During the 1980s, Bucyrus residents voted down a ballot issue that would’ve gotten the city’s sewer separation project off the ground then.

“If they would’ve done it, we wouldn’t be sitting here,” Reser said. “That would’ve been a good time to undertake it.”

thill3@nncogannett.com

419-563-9225

Twitter: @ToddHillMNJ