Lucas County commissioners Tuesday unanimously accepted a water contract with the city.
During a regular meeting Tuesday, the Lucas County Board of Commissioners voted 3 to 0 to sign on to the new regional water commission.
The new water deal proposes 40-year water contracts that would equalize water rates over the course of seven years.
“This is a great step for regional cooperation. It will make for fair and reasonable rates for the entire region moving forward,” Board President Tina Skeldon Wozniak said, adding that it will also help all the member communities to work together to ensure higher water quality and help in remediation of lead-pipe issues.
The proposal was made Sept. 3, when Toledo City Council voted 12-0 to offer uniform water contracts to the eight communities that purchase Toledo water — Lucas County, Maumee, Perrysburg, Sylvania, Whitehouse, Fulton County, Monroe County, and the Northwestern Water and Sewer District. The vote was the culmination of months of negotiations among area officials trying to hash out a regional water deal that would provide equitable, predictable water rates for the region.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz set a 45-day deadline for suburban leaders to decide if they’ll accept the contract proposals. Officials will then calculate new water rates once they know who will participate in the regional water commission.
In other business, commissioners accepted the final report of a task force organized earlier this year by to examine the state of the Toledo Area Regional Transportation Authority.
Chaired by Bruce Baumhower, President of UAW Local 12, the task force report recommends revamping bus services and changing TARTA's local subsidy to a sales tax, among other things.
The recommendation is to replace the current 2.5-mill property tax with a sales tax, not to exceed 0.5 percent.
As to revamping bus services, the task force has a goal “to utilize more frequent and less confusing express routes between community hubs in high-density population areas,” according to a written statement by the board. “The re-imagined pickup and delivery of passengers must be less dependent on fixed-line bus routes and move toward using on-demand smaller transit vehicles,” it said.
The task force also proposes overhauling the TARTA brand and engaging stakeholders and community groups “through a planning process update.”
Said Mr. Baumhower in a prepared statement: “As the chair of the Community Task Force on Public Transportation, I believe the committee has provided the commissioners with a comprehensive report that provides an overview of the issues the 18-member task force studied throughout the last eight months, as well as a full disclosure of the analysis that went into the recommendations drawn from their studies. I would like to thank the task force members for their contributions to the report.”
First Published September 10, 2019, 11:05 p.m.
