By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — The administration for the City of Greenville answered questions regarding an upcoming capital improvement expense during the regular meeting of council on Tuesday, June 5.

When the city approved its capital improvement project list for this year, the fire department learned they would be receiving a much-needed upgrade to the garage doors. According to Safety Service Director Ryan Delk, the city has ordered five tempered glass garage doors, as well as four openers. The project will include replacing the wood framing around the doors, much of which is rotten, as well as metal trim and gutter. The total cost for the project is $48,225.

Delk shared the replacement was needed because they have been having issues with the doors and openers and this is a capital maintenance upgrade. Councilman Greg White questioned why use tempered glass doors instead of standard garage doors. Delk explained the fire department received a $25,000 donation to help offset the cost for the tempered glass doors. If the city had gone with the standard doors, the cost would have been over $30,000. With the donation, the city’s share is $23,225.

The city has had the replacement listed in its Capital Improvement Projects in recent years, but had to back off on replacing the doors when other projects took precedent.

Delk also shared with council members the city is facing a big expense over the next 10 to 13 years. The EPA will be forcing cities and municipalities across Ohio to replace lead water service lines. By the end of this year, the city will have to determine how many lead water service lines it has. Delk estimated the city has about 2,000 lead lines, mostly in the older sections of the town. Basically, any home built before the late 1960s and early 1970s could have lead water service lines. To give an estimate of what the cost will be, the city recently had a $1 million grant that replaced 112 lines.

By 2027, the city will need to have a plan to replace the lines with 10 percent being replaced each year from 2027-2037.

The city’s responsibility will be from the main to the curb stop and the homeowner will be responsible for replacing lines from the curb stop to the home. The last project the city did the city got agreements with the homeowner and went all the way into the house. “With the cost and because of the requirement, I think we are going to have to focus our funding on our end just because it is going to be the law,” said Delk.

Even if a homeowner has a galvanized line extending from a lead line, the EPA will strongly urge the homeowner to replace the line because of the lead being able to settle into the galvanized line.

There is a caveat for homeowners. According to Delk, as of yet the city will not be able to force the homeowner to replace their portion of the line. The city will have to make four attempts to try and get the homeowner to replace their line. “They have the right to say no. If they say no, we give them a filter process that we recommend they use on it,” he said. However, if a resident chooses to replace their line before the city schedules its line replacement, the city will be required to replace its lead line at that time.

Delk believes grants will be offered, but so far, the state has only pledged $160 million that will be spread across all 88 counties.

The city learned it has received a $1.2 million grant from the Ohio Department of Development to assist with the recent State Route 502 Water Transmission Line replacement. The city originally received $1.4 million in funding. The engineer’s estimate was about $2 million. The cost eventually went up to approximately $3.2 million because of COVID and other issues. The most recent grant was designed to close the gap. “We applied for $1.2 million to close that gap from the engineer’s estimate to the bid and we received that funding,” said Delk.

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].