Delphos Residents Left With High Bills and Unanswered Questions

A Not So Novel Approach to City Government

If you’ve kept up with the articles in the local Newspaper, the residents were greeted with a cry for help on Saturday morning. The headlines said “Locals Hold Mop”. The article beneath explained the sad truth that the residents of this NW Ohio bedroom community are paying for a two year old water treatment plant that is already at capacity. The Council is at odds on how to pay the bills and is basically telling the residents that the already astronomical water bills are not going down any time soon. The article goes on to say that a proposed wind farm would probably not be a good idea at this time. Did anyone really know that a wind farm was being planned? I’m guessing most did not.

Last Saturday (11/21), an article appeared, I’m guessing, as an answer to the public outcry over their newest utility bill. The mayor spent most of the front page of the paper explaining how the bills are calculated as if this was going to end the frustration. As I was once told – “I don’t want to know how the car works, I just want to know that it does.” The people of Delphos are not interested in how much they pay for the first 100 cubic feet or the last. They want to know that they are going to be able to pay their other obligations after the city utility bill bleeds them dry.

This problem didn’t start last week though. It’s been coming on for a long time. The EPA makes the rounds and tells the city that they are under capacity and must upgrade their water treatment facility. They are given a plan that satisfies the guidelines for a municipality the size of ours. Then we must come up with a plan to finance it. That’s where it all starts.

Someone gets the idea that we need to tear down the water tower that needs major repairs. “But, hey, we don’t need it! We’ll build a reservoir and pump water in.” Then we say – “Hey! We can build a bigger and better facility if we get the local towns around us to buy our water. They’ll not have to put their own money into info-structure if they just buy it from us.” That makes perfect sense!” But apparently no one bothered to ask those other towns what they thought of the plan. And even if they did, we never got a firm commitment, a Letter of Intent so to speak.

Without regard for the citizens, the plan was made to build the treatment plant, probably based on EPA guidelines. But the EPA probably only considered basic growth as the expansion needs for the plant. Nothing was done to survey existing business to find out if they had plans that would affect their future needs for water and sewer. I expect that no one considered the economic development plan for the city. After all, are we not trying to attract new businesses to put our people to work?

Now, it seems that reality has set in. The water treatment plant is now two years old. Because of the expansion of just one major user, it is at or very near capacity. But we can’t charge them for all that excess usage, because they would just fold up shop and go someplace else. Future growth is also a moot point. No business that uses any major amount of water is going to want to locate here.

Many residents would consider moving out of the city limits if it weren’t for the struggling housing market. Add high utility bills to the mix and no one wants to move into town.

The big problem is that we are a small town and we do not have the availability of finances that attract experienced leaders. Council members can only do so much. They can come up with ideas. But the administration has to have the foresight to look at the big picture and say – “This can be done or that can’t be done or In order for that to be done, we need to make sure we think about this and make sure we do that first.” We cannot allow ourselves to put more on our plate than what we can consume. We also cannot allow the people we select to represent us to continue to make decisions without our input. Heck, they don’t even publicize when seats that are up for re-election are going uncontested.

Part of the job of the Council is to represent the people’s best interests. Part is to make decisions when there is a question on which direction to proceed is the best. Another is also equally important. That is to review. Reviewing the successes and failures of the past and also reviewing the successes and failures of those they hire to administrate the town and its respective departments. If anyone is not being effective in their position, it is up to the elected officials to council, correct, or in some cased, replace those persons who are ineffective.

But the bottom line is that it is the responsibility of the citizens to “inspect what they expect.” We can no longer afford to simply let everyone else go to the polls and vote for us because we think our vote won’t matter. We need to research and decide who we think will be the best candidate and vote for them. But it doesn’t stop there! We need to go to council meetings and voice our opinion, not just on things that would affect us now, but on what would affect us as a community down the road, too. We need to hold our council and administrators accountable and question their reason for dong things that will affect the amount of our resources that will be pooled together for the betterment of all.

If you are upset with your utility bill, ask why we changed trash companies because that decision raised your utility bill also. Ask what the going rate is throughout the state of Ohio for a gallon of water. According to our Mayor, water costs us about $.01 per gallon. But it also costs us $.01 to get rid of it because every drop of water used is deemed to go into the sewer system. While you’re at it, ask why some of our streets have the benefit of storm sewers and others don’t. Ask! Ask! Ask! And then research and make sure that the answer you get is the correct one!

We can’t afford to let our bills get any higher. We do a great job at sponsoring everything in town, especially if it benefits our children. But the dollars available will continue to get smaller if we don’t get involved. Use the mop – BUT DON’T GIVE IT UP! And DON’T STOP MOPPING!