Perrysburg approves water contract with Toledo
The suburb becomes the final customer to join Regional Water Commission. 
By Sarah Elms and Kate Snyder / The Blade
Tue, 15 Oct 2019 23:15:08 GMT
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Perrysburg City Council has approved a 40-year drinking water contract with the city of Toledo, a move officials have called “historic” and said would pave the way for future regional cooperation.
The 5-2 vote on Tuesday makes Perrysburg the final Toledo water customer to join the newly formed Regional Water Commission, which will equalize water rates for Toledo’s municipal customers and give each customer a voice in how the utility operates.
“The invisible city boundaries drawn in the 19th century don’t make any sense in the global, digital world of the 21st century. To win the future, we need to compete as a region. Today, we took an historic step in that direction,” Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said in a statement after the vote.
Perrysburg officials spent months studying their other drinking water options, including linking up with Bowling Green’s system or joining the Michindoh Aquifer, but ultimately concluded that staying with Toledo was the best route. Perrysburg will now join Sylvania, Maumee, Whitehouse, Fulton County, Monroe County, the Northwest Water and Sewer District, and Lucas County in signing the new 40-year water contracts with Toledo.
It’s a vote of confidence in Toledo’s system that many were skeptical would ever come after regional water discussions had to reset in January when city council voted down an earlier attempt to restructure the utility.
The two dissenting votes, Perrysburg City Council President Jim Matuszak and Councilman Jonathan Smith, both cited their distrust in Toledo and that a viable water option exists in Bowling Green as reasons for their votes.
“I would only enter an agreement with [Toledo] if I had absolutely no other choice at all,” Mr. Matuszak said.
During the meeting, Mr. Matuszak asked questions regarding whether the city had done its due diligence in determining what kind of agreement Perrysburg could have made with Bowling Green. Perrysburg Mayor Tom Mackin said officials did reach out to Bowling Green about a possible water agreement, but he believed Bowling Green officials were not interested.
Mayor Mackin said rejecting the Toledo agreement for a hypothetical agreement with Bowling Green was a risk.
“It’s a very fair contract,” he said about the Toledo agreement. “It’s a fair deal.”
Councilman Deborah Born said she agreed with the mayor about Bowling Green being a risk and Toledo being ultimately the best choice.
“I have been, from the beginning, an advocate of continuing our relationship with Toledo,” she said.
Toledo’s suburbs currently are all under different drinking water contracts with Toledo at varying rates. Suburban leaders have been pushing for uniform water contracts with Toledo for years, and talks ramped up again after the 2014 water crisis when toxic algae fouled Toledo’s drinking water system.
Under the new commission, each participating suburb will buy water from Toledo at the same wholesale rate, except for Lucas County, which will purchase Toledo water at a retail rate.
The retail rate covers the cost of taking in the water from Lake Erie and treating the water, plus the cost to pipe the water to homes and businesses and to pay for customer service and maintenance.
The wholesale rate only covers the cost of taking in the water, treating it, and transporting it to each municipality, as each suburb will handle its own distribution.
While the wholesale rate is less costly than the retail rate, suburban residents still can expect to pay more for water because each municipality likely will tack on its own surcharges to cover its maintenance and customer service costs.
Signing the 40-year contract also gives each municipality a seat on the Regional Water Commission, which will recommend water rates and capital improvement projects regarding Toledo’s Collins Park Water Treatment Plant to Toledo City Council. If city council doesn’t take action on the commission’s recommendations, they’ll automatically take effect.