Peninsula Village Council unanimously voted to approve a plan to move from septic systems to a centralized wastewater management system Thursday night.
The plan, proposed by Summit County, will use $7.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars to address the village's failing septic systems, officials said. However, not all residents are on board with the county's plan and want more transparency from the county on the costs and effectiveness of other sewer options.
Plans to replace the village's septic systems have been in the works for almost two decades, according to the Environmental Design Group, the contractor working on the project. The need for a solution became more apparent when testing from Summit County Public Health in 2018 and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in 2019 found elevated levels of E. Coli being discharged from storm sewers into the Cuyahoga River, a violation of the Clean Water Act.
"The fact is that every group that has ever studied this in the village no matter who they are has come up with the same conclusion, that we need a central sewer system," Councilmember John Krusinski said.
However, residents worry that the plan was pushed through too fast and that they weren't included in the planning process.
"Forcing things through tonight will likely cause irreparable damage to the perception of council's respect for voters," resident Greg Canda said.
Residents claim council did not include them in the decision making process. After asking for a public meeting for more than a year, council held a special meeting on Dec. 5 where the county presented its plan. That's not enough public engagement to push the resolution through, resident Daniel DeAngelo said.
"I am not anti-sewer. I am for transparency, a community-involved process and data-driven decision-making," he said. "We have had none of these over the past year and a half of this sewer discussion."
The county and some residents argued that they need to jump on the ARPA funds before they go away.
"That is an extremely short, aggressive timeline. There is not a month or two months or three months or another year available to talk about this," Bill Clifton, a resident who worked on the sewer project from 2015 to 2018, said. "The reality is, if you don't get this thing approved then you can kind of kiss the money goodbye. It isn't going to happen."
Since council declared an emergency to pass the resolution, it will go into effect immediately instead of in 30 days, according to Solicitor Bradric Bryan, which residents also disagreed with.
"Because this is not an emergency, I believe it is your duty to not suspend the three meeting rule and to remove the emergency language from the referendum," resident Sean Hensley said.
After passage by Peninsula Village Council, Summit County Council now needs to vote to approve the village's entrance into the Summit County Metropolitan Sewer District, before ARPA funds are committed before the end of 2024, councilmembers said.
Some residents claimed council wanted to push the resolution through before the new year, when two new members will be joining council.
"There's nothing that couldn't wait two weeks from what they describe," Amy Frank Hensley said, "so in my mind, this was really a ploy on their part to get it done with the administration that they have."
Richard Slocum and Steve Schultz, who have been outspoken against the sewer plan, beat incumbent councilmembers Krusinski and Rich Fisher in November, according to the Summit County Board of Elections. Schultz took issue with council pushing the resolution through before he takes office.
"Wastewater is the most contentious and consequential issue this town faces. How did we get here? This is an emergency before Christmas, it's an irreversible decision. We can't reverse it with a referendum," he said. "It doesn't make any sense to me. If this is a good decision, won't it be a good decision in a week or two weeks?"
Council stood firm in the need to vote on the resolution immediately, both for financial and environmental reasons.
"We need to clean it up. We have a responsibility to do that," Councilmember John Najeway said. "I think we have a responsibility to do that as fast as we can."
The county's plan is to build a localized wastewater plant on Locust Street on property the village already owns, according to officials. Estimates for construction come in at about $6 million, but if the project exceeds the $7.5 million in ARPA money, the county may look to property assessments or more grant funding to close the gap.
