BWD home visits will gauge interest in water service

WELLSVILLE Residents living in the Frederick Heights area of Calcutta soon will be surveyed to determine if they are interested in tapping into the Buckeye Water District, with some door-to-door persuasion planned.

Members of the BWD board of trustees Thursday approved a recommendation to pay $20 per hour to an employee of Dallis Dawson & Associates to canvass residents about tapping in.

Member Chuck Bibbee pointed out that mail surveys requesting participation interest have not been a great success in the past, so those in the Old Fredericktown Road area who fail to respond to a mail survey will be visited in person.

It is estimated each visit will require about an hour, and the board agreed the canvasser fee will not exceed $9,500.

This is one area the board believes could be a good source of customers for the district, and members also have indicated an interest in surveying the Oakmont area and the village of Rogers to determine interest.

The first phase of a new waterline to Salineville got started this week, and the board was visited yesterday by Madison Township Trustee Chairman George Crews, who has some early concerns about the project.

He said construction signs near Osbourne Road need to be moved to a location where they can be seen sooner by approaching traffic, and he said he has had complaints about an insufficient number of flaggers.

Board President Mike Ryan said both problems will be resolved because the district wants to accommodate residents as much as possible.

It was reported Osbourne Road will be closed to all but local traffic during the project, but member Cal Carney asked how that would be enforced.

Ryan said the vast majority of drivers will obey signs limiting traffic to local residents.

A change order on the waterline project not to exceed $110,000 was approved. The change will allow a waterline to be installed on Crews Road and James Drive, where 10 customers have committed to tapping in.

The change order will depend upon whether the contractor can do the job for that price. If not, it can be bid out as a separate project.

A $5,500.50 then-and-now purchase order for Dallis Dawson & Associates was approved to pay for an additional easement that had to be secured for the Salineville project.

Crews also asked that the BWD clean up gravel being pulled from its driveway at the water plant onto state Route 45, which Ryan said will be done.

A resolution to purchase two new Ford pickup trucks and a new Ford super cab truck through the state purchasing program at a total cost of $56,989 was approved.

Bibbee pointed out the cost will be paid with grant funding and will replace "very well-used" vehicles that now are costing more to repair than replace.

Also approved was a resolution authorizing the district to obtain a credit card from CF Bank, its new depository, to be used by the district manager up to $2,500 for necessary expenditures, subject to approval of the finance committee.

jgilbert@mojonews.com