New Albany ends stormwater deal, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)
Environmental Management Corp. will relinquish services for New Albany’s stormwater utility effective Jan. 1.
Mayor Doug England made the announcement during Monday’s City Council meeting, saying the decision will be finalized when the Stormwater Board votes to end the contract at its next meeting scheduled for Nov. 13.
To break the contract, the board will pay EMC $200,000. EMC will continue professional services for the city’s sewer utility despite losing the stormwater agreement ...
… Stormwater and Sewer Board Chairman Ron Carroll said EMC had been “falling behind” on duties …
… England opposes privatizing services, saying there could be a review of other contracts, including trash pick-up.
Readers, your thoughts?
13 comments:
Well, depending on how a certain person's legal trouble turns out, she could be given community service to work on storm water problems. That would save money.
She already has the boots.
Are you talking about Kelvin Sampson? :)
Daniel s,
I want to publicly commend you. You have taken to walking with shoes on just like you have been doing it all of your life. You must have taken Advanced Walking--Shoes 401 at UK.
Actually Mark, I took how to buy shoes 101 first, then I took wearing shoes that aren't homemade 201, followed by socks are progressive too, 301, then Advanced Walking 401. It was the best eight years of instruction I ever had!
Note to self--never get into a "word match" with a man who makes his living with words.
If the Mayor's thinking is that we have (or can hire) city employees with the knowledge & skill sets to operate and maintain the Storm Water Utility more efficiently (both in operation and dollars) than a private entity that specializes in such, then I've no problem with doing so.
If on the other hand the goal is to free up dollars that can be cannibalized for purposes other than the operation & maintenance of said utility, I'd have to state my opposition to the proposal.
Stealing from Peter to pay Paul is one of the prime contributors to our Storm Water/Sewer/EPA debacle in the first place.
Although it is never said in a public meeting the storm water & sanitary sewer lines serving the core neighborhoods of New Albany are (depending on who you ask) between 30 to 80 years of age.
Around the bend in the forseeable future awaits the reality that that a 40 foot section of new PVC pipe will not suffice as a band-aid on a bleeding artery.
If we do not allow the monies to accumulate to at least begin a major infrastructe update, we'll be right back where we were when the EPA came to town in the first place.
But hey! Our property taxes have been capped, our Sewer rates remain low and our budget remains frozen despite the rise in costs to the city to provide basic services!
It's all good!!!
Very nice presentation of the questions, Lloyd. It will be intertesting to see the answers.
Monday night, when the Mayor was questioned on whether the city would have to hire additional people and how many, the answer was, "We don't know yet". When asked if and how this "taking back" will affect the budget for next year, the answer was, "We don't know yet."
I'd like to suggest the city return the original storm drain system, which once it's up and running is virtually maintenance free, not to mention nice to look at. Oh, can I add it saves on energy costs too?
NATIVE HARDWOOD CANOPY.
The town created it's own storm drain problem when it allowed the city to be paved over and all the big old trees be felled. All the money spent now and in the future is just covering over the one sustainable solution.
Wow, where was Mayor England when a few citizens convinced then Mayor Garner to outsource garbage pickup? No brainer. Oh, but what do I know, I'm just a spoiled and rich union utility worker.
Maybe I'm just naive but wouldn't it make more sense to actually have some sort of plan as to whether or not you are going to need more man-power or how you are going to work the cost of taking that department back in-house into the budget prior to making the announcement? It amazes me how we will spend thousands for a study to tells us we need to pave all the streets in New Albany, but we don't worry about making plans for covering the cost for us to take back in-house a department that was a drain on the sewer utility for years.
Marcey, you are not naive at all. You sound very coherent and sensible. This is just another shoot from the hip moment that we have grown acustomed to with the England camp. 200k to get out of half the contract and another 100K on a boat to put out the firs that taxpayers will set when they find out the truth.
"fires"
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