Lorain ready to settle for township sewers

The city of Lorain and Lorain County are close to resolving a long-simmering dispute over sewer costs, said Mayor Jack Bradley.

Lorain City Council will consider a settlement that would end the disagreement that started as early as 2002, according to legislation published for Council’s Feb. 17 meeting.

If approved, the county would pay $1.5 million for wastewater fees collected and owed to the city.

The dispute is not related to the current complaints from Lorain residents about rising costs of water and wastewater treatment. But Bradley said he would like to use at least some of the settlement money for relief for the residents.

The settlement also saves money in legal fees for city and county taxpayers, said Bradley and County Commissioner Matt Lundy.

“And it just shows the city of Lorain and the county commissioners can work together when we sit down and talk reasonably,” Bradley said.

“It doesn’t hurt to have a lawyer as the mayor of Lorain,” he added. “I did negotiations for a living for 42 years.”

Lundy emphasized both sides want to work together on future sanitary sewer projects and the

settlement opens the door for more cooperation.

1976 contract

The dispute stems from

a 1976 agreement between the city of Lorain and Lorain County.

The city agreed to treat sewage for residents living in Elyria Township and Sheffield Township.

But in 2002, “a dispute arose regarding alleged overpayment by the county to the city of the sanitary sewer fees,” according to the settlement.

The county stopped paying the fees pending a resolution to the dispute. In June 2018, the city sent the county a demand for arbitration, according to the settlement.

Both sides were gearing up for depositions and selecting arbitrators who would consider the case and make a binding ruling, Bradley said.

“I think this is a reasonable compromise to avoid lengthy and costly litigation,” Lundy said.

Higher rates

With a settlement, Elyria Township and Sheffield Township residents will see rate increases for the sewage treatment costs, Lundy and Bradley said.

The Lorain sewer customers outside the city always

have paid more than those in the city lines, Bradley said.

For the first year of the agreement, township customers will pay 105 percent of Lorain’s in-city rate, which currently is $6.38 per hundred cubic feet of wastewater. A hundred cubic feet is a measurement used by cities and industry; it is equal to about 748 gallons of water.

The township rate then will go up 5 percent per year for years two, three, four and five, according to the agreement.

“The bills will go up but they will not go up anywhere near what they could have gone up,” Lundy said.

If the city and county went through the legal arbitration process and the county lost, the township rates could have been higher, he said.

Nobody in government

likes to raise costs or rates for voters, Lundy added.

The city will gain revenues to pay for improvements to its sewer treatment system, said Lorain Safety-Service Director Max Upton.

Getting involved

Upon taking office Jan. 1, Bradley said he learned about the legal dispute and asked Law Director Pat Riley if he could approach the county leaders to discuss a settlement.

With the Law Department’s consent, Bradley said he spoke to Lorain County Commissioner Matt Lundy about the issue. That led to a meeting with Lundy and fellow Commissioners Lori Kokoski and Sharon Sweda.

The dispute is “almost as old as father time,” Lundy said.

The city and county officials wanted to reach a settlement, he said. But with attorneys wrangling over contract language from 1976, it got complicated, Lundy said.

“I give the mayor a lot of credit,” Lundy said about Bradley. “He wanted to get it resolved, we wanted to get it resolved. The attorneys wanted to continue to dispute the language.”