Plain City has started the process of contracting with the City of Columbus for water and sewer services.
At a work session meeting Monday, the village council voted to have Village Administrator Kevin Vaughn begin negotiations with Columbus. Village Solicitor Paul Lafayette said any contract would need to be approved by the council.
“Does everyone agree we need to do something?” Council President Pro-Tem John Rucker asked his fellow council members.
All agreed. Council member Colleen Davis said water and sewer were the top priority for the village from a strategic planning perspective.
“When we came onto council four years ago, there was nothing like this happening,” Councilmember Nick Kennedy said. “As much as I would like to pat myself on the back, this is Kevin (Vaughn)’s work. I assume this is a staggering amount of work.”
During last week’s village council meeting, Vaughn said his recommendation to council would be to partner with the City of Columbus.
Vaughn said Madison County Commissioners were adamant that Plain City could not contract with Columbus. He said the commissioners first wanted the village to build their own plant, but realized it would be difficult. Then they wanted Plain City to use Marysville for service. Eventually Vaughn said he brought one of the commissioners into the negotiations with Marysville.
Lafayette said having a county commissioner attend a meeting with Marysville was “one of the smartest things” Vaughn could have done. He said that once the commissioner sat in on the meeting, he was all in favor of contracting with Columbus.
“From a partnership stand point, I really thought they (Marysville) would be a better partner, better for the region,” Vaughn said. “We really wanted to use them but the $191-million swing was too much to ignore.”
The $191-million is based on the higher water and sewer fees charged by Marysville and the fact that Columbus will allow the village to keep one-time fees to tap into the water system. Marysville would have kept those fees.
Marysville officials argued that while their rates are currently higher, they would not raise rates for at least a decade while Columbus has historically raised rates each year. Plain City officials said they did not believe Marysville could guarantee a rate freeze.
“I don’t know if they could promise that,” Vaughn said.
Vaughn said he will work to make Plain City a master community, meaning that rather than residents buying water from Columbus and receiving bills from Columbus, the Village of Plain City would buy the water in bulk and sell it to residents. The residents would receive bills from Plain City and the village would maintain all of the same billing and maintenance services.
Vaughn said three of the other master meter communities responded to his questions.
“Columbus has been an excellent partner,” Gahanna officials responded to the questionnaire.
He said all three communities said Columbus has not hindered economic development in their community. The three communities said Columbus does not receive any of the income tax.
“They will not take a portion of our income tax as a part of any structured agreement,” Vaughn said.
Plain City is already working with the Environmental Protection Agency to expand utility services east of the village to the Franklin/Madison county lines, north to Currier Road and south to Price-Hilliards Road. Once approved, anyone wanting to use Columbus water and sewer through Plain City would need to annex into the village.
“That doesn’t mean that tomorrow we are going to expand our corporate limit signs,” Vaughn said.
Lafayette said that since development will likely move from Dublin toward Plain City, it could be a while before the boarders are expanded.
Plain City Mayor Darren Lane said that area is going to grow and control of the utility rights will assure Plain City dictates how the growth occurs. Vaughn said most of the property owners in the proposed expanded area are interested in what Plain City is doing and open to annexation into the village for water and sewer services.
“This is going to help us grow in the right areas, to revive our downtown and to preserve what we have,” Lafayette said.
Davis suggested scheduling a series of public meetings to explain what is happening and why. She said residents in the proposed expansion areas should specifically be invited to the meeting.