Toledo water service expands in Wood Co

TROY TOWNSHIP, Ohio - After years of waiting for more water and sewer services, the northeastern corner of Wood County will soon have its thirst quenched.

Jerry Greiner, executive director of the Northwestern Water and Sewer District, said Wednesday that Toledo City Council has approved the district's request for expanded services in the Troy Township area. "They've been reluctant to do that for four years," Greiner said. "This is great news."

The approval from Toledo comes just weeks after Troy Township officials agreed to a tax sharing Joint Economic Development District agreement with Toledo in exchange for getting Toledo water and sewer services extended to the Dominion Energy site just south of U.S. 20 on Pemberville Road. The services will also be extended to the small unincorporated communities of Stony Ridge and Lemoyne.

"It opens several doors," Greiner said of the expanded water and sewer services.

While the JEDD tax-sharing area encompasses just 460 acres to the north of the Dominion Energy site, the service extension agreement will allow services in a much larger area, including Stony Ridge and Lemoyne, which have been under EPA orders to get sanitary sewers since 1995, Greiner said.

The expansion will also make way for future utility extensions to areas such as Luckey, the Eastwood schools complex and Otterbein retirement village - "whenever they're ready," Greiner said.

Though some local officials have questioned the wisdom of entering another tax sharing agreement with Toledo, Greiner explained that the water and sewer services were needed to continue development of the Dominion Energy site. The expanded agreement will allow the Northwestern Water and Sewer District to construct its proposed $7 million utilities extension to the site, and a $5.5 million sewer extension to Stony Ridge and Lemoyne.

"The ability to provide utilities, especially at the Dominion Energy site, offers an economic development site for industrial or commercial use, unrivaled in the midwestern United States," Greiner said. "The township and the local school system could be big winners if the site attracted the right employer."

Troy Township also needed the water and sewer commitment in order to secure state funds for the "Jobs Ready Site" at the Dominion Energy acreage.

"Our county would lose over $2 million from the state," Wood County Commissioner Tim Brown said when the JEDD was formed. "The agreement was unfortunately necessary."

"In the long term, our goal is to find additional sources of water so these agreements aren't necessary," Brown said.

For that reason, Wood County is helping to fund a study to search for water from Ottawa County, with fewer strings attached than the water from Toledo. "They are willing to serve additional areas without additional income tax," Greiner said when the study was first approved.

But until a new water source is found, Greiner is relieved that the Dominion project can now move forward.
"At least in the meantime we've got somebody to step up to provide water and sewer," he said.

(Information from the Sentinel-Tribune - a FOX Toledo News Media Partner)