MOUNT VERNON — The City of Mount Vernon will enter a joint agreement with Clinton Township to extend a water main to Crystal Avenue.
On Monday, City Council members authorized the safety-service director to apply for a joint grant through the Ohio Public Works Commission’s Capital Improvement Program.
City officials met with the township trustees in the spring about the project. The trustees notified the city last week they wanted to apply for the grant.
Council members waived the three readings and passed the legislation as an emergency because the application deadline is Nov. 1.
The water main extension would zigzag on Johnson Avenue and extend the entire length of Crystal Avenue. Engineering completed the design work, and the city has the required permits.
“This is the most customers per foot of pipe for any project in Clinton Township,” City Engineer Brian Ball said.
Knox County commissioners also voted to approve a Community Development Block Grant for the project.
“So, ideally, we get about an $800,000 water line for $100,000 or less from our cash,” Ball said. “The goal is to get a project funded with two grants and maybe a little bit of loan so we’re not impacting the operation in the water system.”
“The commissioners are behind us doing this because the water out there is not good, not good at all,” Trustee Donna Hochstetler told council. “We did the Buckeye Addition, and it was a success.
“Hopefully we can start with Fairview and Crystal and expand the whole thing so everybody has drinking water that’s good.”
Ball said crews will install pipes at each intersection to set up future extensions throughout the neighborhood.
Benefits to township residents of water main extension
The project is 100% in Clinton Township. Township residents pay a 40% surcharge for water. The township receives part of the 40% to help pay its wastewater debt. The remaining money goes to the city’s improvements account.
“We are legally allowed to use that money to improve anything in the water system. We’re obligated to occasionally use it in the township,” Ball said.
Ball said the computer model shows the line extension benefits the industrial park. That’s good news for the residents.
“When we come back for construction, we would ask council to remove the service availability fee because we would classify it as a transmission main,” he said.
“We’re going to make the pipe big enough that it would benefit the industrial park by connecting the main line on Harcourt to the line that crosses the river.”
Hochstetler said many township residents have to buy bottled water.
Ball said the Ohio EPA ordered DeCoskey (Mount Vernon Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, Cadillac) to connect to public water because the company had multiple E. coli hits.
“Testing on private property isn’t mandated. But if you are a trailer park or you’re open to the public and you have drinking fountains, then they’re classified as a water system,” Ball explained. “Anywhere there’s public consumption, they have to have regular testing.”
The Buckeye Addition had multiple E. coli hits, which helped the city get the grants that paid for new water lines.
“We have bottled water at our township house,” Hochstetler said. “We don’t even drink the water. I know it sounds terrible, but we don’t. It’s turned off. We wash our hands with it and use it in the bathrooms.”
Timeline for the grant
The city will learn early next year whether the EPA approves the grant. The county is working on a pre-application for the CDBG grant. However, the application window is not yet open.
“The earliest this could possibly start would be next summer, and then we would have two years to do it,” Ball said.
