NOACA vote supports county over Wadsworth
County and city differ on upgrading Sharon Township water service
Adam Friedrick
WADSWORTH – A proposal to transfer water and sewer customers north of Wadsworth from the city to the county has received approval from a key committee at the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency.
The proposal had been stuck at NOACA for more than a year where members had hoped county and city officials could work out disagreements about a $3.7 million project proposed by the county to extend new water and sewer lines to the Sharon Center area, parts of which are currently being served by the city. A majority of the NOACA Planning and Programming Committee voted to accept the recommendations of its staff Oct. 12 and send the county plan on to the full NOACA board for consideration.
“I’m happy that we’re moving this project forward,” County Commissioner Adam Friedrick said about the NOACA committee vote. “We still need the approval of the full board but we cleared a major hurdle with this vote.”
Friedrick is a member of the NOACA board and said the project represents the best solution to water issues affecting Sharon Township residents but conceded Wadsworth city officials may see things otherwise.
The project represents an upgrade to the county’s water and sewer systems and has the potential to lower rates for some township residents. However, it also represents the cancellation of a 1975 agreement the county has with Wadsworth to provide water service to township residents and industries south of Sharon Center.
The upgrades to the county systems will allow it to provide service to about 1,000 parcels now being served by the city. The affect will be a loss for Wadsworth of about $300,000 a year in utility fees. That’s down from $600,000 before a compromise between the county and city to allow the city to retain some of the customers who could have been switched to the county under the original proposal.
The loss of revenue to the city could result in a 9 percent increase in rates for existing water and sewer customers in Wadsworth and that has generated sympathy with some members of the NOACA board. However, the county proposal has been endorsed by township trustees not only in Sharon and Wadsworth, but also the Medina County and Northeast Ohio Township Trustees Associations who generally support any projects to extend water and sewer service into unincorporated areas.
The water line proposed by the county would travel south down Ridge Road and replace an eight-inch water main serving Sharon Center with a 12-inch line that would be further extended east on state Route 162 to State Road where it would travel north back to Route 18.
Medina County Sanitary Engineer Amy Lyon-Galvin said the project would allow the county to decommission a small water system that now serves Sharon Center and improve the overall efficiency of the county water system.
The project would also enable the county to abandon a costly pump station that carries waste water south to be treated at the Wadsworth treatment plant. The new plan would allow wastewater from Sharon and parts of Wadsworth Township to be transported to an interceptor sewer on Route 18 where it would be transported to the county’s newly renovated Kenneth W. Holtz Water Reclamation Facility in Liverpool Township.
The proposal had been stuck at NOACA for more than a year where members had hoped county and city officials could work out disagreements about a $3.7 million project proposed by the county to extend new water and sewer lines to the Sharon Center area, parts of which are currently being served by the city. A majority of the NOACA Planning and Programming Committee voted to accept the recommendations of its staff Oct. 12 and send the county plan on to the full NOACA board for consideration.
“I’m happy that we’re moving this project forward,” County Commissioner Adam Friedrick said about the NOACA committee vote. “We still need the approval of the full board but we cleared a major hurdle with this vote.”
Friedrick is a member of the NOACA board and said the project represents the best solution to water issues affecting Sharon Township residents but conceded Wadsworth city officials may see things otherwise.
The project represents an upgrade to the county’s water and sewer systems and has the potential to lower rates for some township residents. However, it also represents the cancellation of a 1975 agreement the county has with Wadsworth to provide water service to township residents and industries south of Sharon Center.
The upgrades to the county systems will allow it to provide service to about 1,000 parcels now being served by the city. The affect will be a loss for Wadsworth of about $300,000 a year in utility fees. That’s down from $600,000 before a compromise between the county and city to allow the city to retain some of the customers who could have been switched to the county under the original proposal.
The loss of revenue to the city could result in a 9 percent increase in rates for existing water and sewer customers in Wadsworth and that has generated sympathy with some members of the NOACA board. However, the county proposal has been endorsed by township trustees not only in Sharon and Wadsworth, but also the Medina County and Northeast Ohio Township Trustees Associations who generally support any projects to extend water and sewer service into unincorporated areas.
The water line proposed by the county would travel south down Ridge Road and replace an eight-inch water main serving Sharon Center with a 12-inch line that would be further extended east on state Route 162 to State Road where it would travel north back to Route 18.
Medina County Sanitary Engineer Amy Lyon-Galvin said the project would allow the county to decommission a small water system that now serves Sharon Center and improve the overall efficiency of the county water system.
The project would also enable the county to abandon a costly pump station that carries waste water south to be treated at the Wadsworth treatment plant. The new plan would allow wastewater from Sharon and parts of Wadsworth Township to be transported to an interceptor sewer on Route 18 where it would be transported to the county’s newly renovated Kenneth W. Holtz Water Reclamation Facility in Liverpool Township.
