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2009-11-20

2009-11-18

2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Friday, October 23, 2009 12:00 PM

Courtesy map

Franklin County Rural Water District No. 7 recently voted to merge with District No. 1, which is one of the largest districts in the county, both in terms of geography and members.

Water districts merge to cut costs, become more efficient

By VICKIE MOSS, Herald Public Affairs Editor

David Alderman enjoys the sense of community that comes with a small water district.

Neighbors help neighbors with problems like a water line break.

But what Alderman doesn’t enjoy is red tape, the kind of red tape that comes from state water regulations on a district that is too small to employ even one person.

That’s one of the reasons why the 26-member Rural Water District No. 7 recently voted to merge with a larger district, No. 1, which has about 660 members.

“We realized if this water district wants to be here for another 40 years, there needs to be some organized investment,” Alderman said of the decision to consolidate.

“Our options would have been to leave it alone and hope for the best, which we did for years, or go into extreme debt to upgrade and enlarge the line, or look for someone who we could spread the cost with.”

About 75 percent of District No. 7’s members showed up at the Sept. 4 meeting and voted overwhelmingly to consolidate, Alderman said.

“Everybody knew it was sort of a pivotal moment for the water district,” he said.

The smaller district approached District No. 1 about a possible merger last spring.

The merger won’t change much for District No. 1 members, Dee Underwood, who served on the merger committee for the water district, said.

“Rural water districts were put together originally just to get clean water to people who live in the country,” Underwood said. “Our board decided it was our responsibility to do this. If we didn’t expect it to be beneficial to them, we wouldn’t have done it.”

The merger will allow District No. 7 members to upgrade water lines and meters at a more reasonable cost, spread over a 10-year period, Underwood and Alderman said. Those members will see higher water rates, they said, but the upgrades will be more cost-effective as part of the larger district.

District No. 1 is one of the largest in Franklin County, both in terms of geography and members, Underwood said. Only District Nos. 4 and 6 serve more people.

District No. 1 stretches from northwest of Ottawa to Wellsville. It meets District No. 7, also northwest of Ottawa, just south of Sand Creek Road.

A public notice about the consolidation was published Oct. 14. Members have 90 days from that date to file a protest petition, but Underwood and Alderman said it’s unlikely such a petition will be filed. The consolidation is expected to be finalized by early next year.

It is not yet known when the district would begin to upgrade the old District No. 7 water lines and meters, Underwood said.

Underwood said it’s unlikely Franklin County will see further water district consolidation, especially between bigger districts.

For example, she said, District No. 1 buys its treated water from the City of Ottawa and Miami County, while other districts have their own wells.

It would be very difficult and expensive to merge districts with such different distribution methods, Underwood said.

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Water districts merge to cut costs, become more efficient

By VICKIE MOSS, Herald Public Affairs Editor

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article | Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.

E-mail this story to a friend | Print this article |
Enjoy the convenience of home delivery of The Ottawa Herald.