Bucyrus Council talks sewer lines

Matt Echel­berry

Inquirer Reporter

At the most recent Bucyrus City Coun­cil meet­ing on July 3, the city’s sewer lines were a major dis­cus­sion topic for coun­cil mem­bers and some res­i­dents. It started in com­mit­tee reports, when Bruce Truka, chair­man for the ser­vice com­mit­tee, said the group dis­cussed Ordi­nance No. 17–2012. The ordi­nance amends and sup­ple­ments chap­ter 923, title 5, part 9 of the Cod­i­fied Ordi­nances, enti­tled “Streets, Util­i­ties and Pub­lic Ser­vices Code.”

It deals with who is respon­si­ble for the main­te­nance of city sewer lines. Coun­cil mem­ber Dan Wire­baugh asked about the specifics of the “right-of-way” because it was not defined in the lan­guage of the ordi­nance. John Walker explained that the right-of-way starts at the cen­ter of the street, but how far it extends varies for each street.

Mark Quinn was one cit­i­zen in atten­dance that evening. Later he addressed the coun­cil about sewer cleanouts, ask­ing why they were being replaced. Truka responded, say­ing that the tiling of some of the older sewer lines needed to be replaced.

Matt Echel­berry

Mark Quinn (left), a pri­vate con­trac­tor who attended the Coun­cil meet­ing, talks to Coun­cil mem­ber John Walker about the sewer lines dur­ing the meeting’s recess. (Inquirer photo/Matt Echelberry)

Quinn, who works as a con­trac­tor, ques­tioned who was respon­si­ble for the cost of the replace­ment. Accord­ing to the pro­posed ordi­nance, respon­si­bil­ity changes based on what is being replaced: sewer mains, sewer lat­er­als or the cleanouts.

Ken Emer­son also addressed coun­cil and sug­gested that the word­ing of the ordi­nance be changed to clar­ify spe­cific def­i­n­i­tions of sewer lat­er­als. Quinn then returned to the podium and iden­ti­fied some tech­ni­cal flaws in the lan­guage of the ordi­nance, which sparked a dis­cus­sion last­ing 20 min­utes about the bound­aries of the right-of-way and how respon­si­bil­ity for replace­ment can change based on the right-of-way. After the dis­cus­sion, coun­cil passed the first read­ing of the ordinance.

In terms of other com­mit­tee reports, Steve Pifer, chair­man of the finance com­mit­tee, announced that a motion was made at its June 28 meet­ing to request leg­is­la­tion for plac­ing the Income Tax levy and Street levy on the Nov. 6 ballot.

In com­mu­ni­ca­tions and peti­tions, coun­cil referred an amend­ment of the Enter­prise Zone to the eco­nomic devel­op­ment com­mit­tee. In the lan­guage of the amend­ment, 4.4 acres is to be annexed to Bucyrus.

Mayor Roger Moore did not have an offi­cer report, but thanked Bucyrus res­i­dents, city work­ers and any­one else who helped with the ongo­ing cleanup effort after the recent storm that swept through the area. He com­mented, “It was over­whelm­ing to see so many cit­i­zens come together to help each other.”

Ser­vice Safety Direc­tor Jeff Wag­ner noti­fied the coun­cil that the Ver­i­zon 4G tower that was recently installed in the city is oper­a­tional and announced that an upright freezer is needed at the Aumiller Park pool.

In new and mis­cel­la­neous busi­ness, John Walker explained that the police department’s dog, Amigo, has been expe­ri­enc­ing some med­ical prob­lems and it is time to retire him. He requested that coun­cil mem­bers con­sid­ered donat­ing to the fund to send Amigo to a new home where he can live com­fort­ably after his ser­vice to the city.

The Craw­ford County Fair runs July 15-July 21 and at the July 15 Con­cert in the Park, the John Kennedy Orches­tra is per­form­ing, which begins at 7 p.m. The next Bucyrus City Coun­cil meet­ing is July 17 at 7:30 p.m. The pub­lic is encour­aged to attend.

Posted by Staff Reports on Jul 9 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.