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The Museum to open in the fall See John Szozda inside
Residents wary of expansion to water plant
April 1, 2013
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By Kelly J. Kaczala Press News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com
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uote of The Week
We’re a community oriented department, and that’s going to continue. Chief Ed Ellis See page 5
Volunteers Northwood Elementary student Ryan Rosenbrook volunteered his time on spring break to help his grandmother and other East Toledo Senior Center sewers make dresses for Haitian children. See Entertainment. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)
City considers billing for rescue By Kelly J. Kaczala Press News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com Oregon is considering soft billing residents’ health insurance companies for rescue services. Councilman James Seaman said the money is needed because there are fewer dollars collected from the fire department’s .5 mill levy as a result of lower property taxes over the years. “At its height, we collected about $180,000 per year from the levy,” said Seaman, who is chairman of the city’s finance committee. “Now, it’s under $100,000.” In addition, Senate Bill 66, which phased out tangible personal property taxes over five years, also had a negative impact on the fire department. “Now that those taxes have been eliminated, it has hurt us,” said Seaman. He’d like to see soft billing funds earmarked for more expensive projects, such as the renovation or construction of a fire station, or the purchase of a new pumper truck. “My feeling is that the money we get from soft billing should go for infrastructure or large expenses. It could be used for small equipment and wage increases. Noth-
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It’s time for us to start thinking ahead and saving the money for these major infrastructure improvements.
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The proposed expansion of the Collins Park Water Treatment Plant in East Toledo drew about 45 residents living near the plant to the Birmingham Branch public library on Tuesday to voice their concerns about the project, which calls for the city’s purchase of several homes in the area. Some wanted to know if the expansion would affect the nearby Collins Park, and whether their homes would be taken by eminent domain if they did not want to sell them to the city. “We’re not coming in to take the park or take people’s properties,” said Dave Welch, director of public utilities in Toledo. “But if we can string some of those properties together, we’re going to do it, and we have the authorization to spend the money. That’s what we’re looking at.” Some property owners have already expressed an interest in selling their homes to Toledo, said Welch. “We have a couple of people we’ve already talked to,” he said. He characterized it as a “willing buyer, willing seller” situation. “We already own about one-third of the property along there right now. So we thought, `Let’s see who’s interested out there.’ Obviously, that caused some concern with some folks because they didn’t understand what we’re doing and what we’re trying to do,” said Welch. “We don’t know what the future may hold,” said Jamie Miller, a realty specialist with the city. “We have no immediate plans to go into the park. But it’s not out of the realm of possibility at some unforeseeable point in the future.” Dave Leffler, Toledo’s commissioner of plant operations, said the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has mandated $314 million of improvements to the plant. “A lot of that is equipment related,” he said. Most of the equipment in the plant, which was built in 1941 at the onset of World War II, is still in service today, said Leffler.
ing has been decided yet but I would like to see it go for big ticket items,” said Seaman. “Right now, we’re doing an assessment of the fire stations,” he added. “If we would need a new pumper, it costs over a half million dollars.” Councilman Mike Sheehy, who is chairman of the safety committee, also said he would like to see funds put aside for costlier equipment and infrastructure projects. “It makes sense that it would be money
used for big ticket items, like fire trucks. So many times, we buy big equipment for the fire department, then we bond it out because there’s not enough money to pay for it. By soft billing, we wouldn’t have to go to the taxpayers and ask for more money,” said Sheehy. The city currently has three fire stations: Fire Station One, at Seaman and Wynn; Fire Station Two at Wheeling and I-280, and Fire Station Three at Bay Shore. “Some trucks almost don’t even fit in the fire stations anymore. We really have some issues about that, especially at the Bay Shore station, which is the oldest station,” said Sheehy. Most of the fire department’s $2 million budget is appropriated from the general fund, said Seaman, while a smaller percentage comes from the fire levy. Seaman said Oregon is one of the last cities to implement soft billing. “It’s occurring in all the other cities,” he said. “It’s time for us to start thinking ahead and saving the money for these major infrastructure improvements.” The fire department would collect about $150,000 the first year of soft billing, said Seaman, then about $200,000 annu-
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