LOGAN — The ongoing sewage and road situation at North Orchard and Culver streets has become “atrocious,” remarked one resident at Tuesday evening’s city council meeting.
The perhaps too-aptly named Vicky Flood was one of multiple residents to show up and complain about the ongoing work, a $6.03 million sewer renovation affecting (or set to affect) many of Logan’s central neighborhoods.
Back in January, the Logan Daily News reported on an open house held about the project, which drew little public interest.
At the time, Gary Silcott of DLZ, the engineering firm overseeing the renovation, called their hired contractor, Rock River Construction, “hit or miss” from prior experience. So far, it seems to be more miss than hit.
“It’s hard to describe how bad it’s been,” Flood told council this Tuesday. “I understand things happen, but it’s been over and over with this company.”
The Flood family allege they experienced electrical damage as result of the project, with costs totaling in the hundreds of dollars. Lucas Noice of North Culver Street said that earlier in the day, he, his family, and neighbors experienced sewage backup in their bathrooms, leading to potentially substantial water damage.
“They’ve been destroying our roads for the better part of a year, and I don’t know if my family’s health is at risk from this,” Noice said.
Bailey Venzin, who lives on North Orchard, did not comment directly on the damage incurred around the construction site — though she said “issues would be an understatement” — but tied it to her previous criticism of how the city and the county EMA alert residents about boil orders.
It’s an issue of “communication,” she said. “I can’t tell you what’s being done on my street, and there seems to be no timeline on completion… Where can we take authority to notify our residents?”
As of the January open house, the work was predicted to last upwards of 18 months.
Mayor Greg Fraunfelter, for his part, did not comment extensively, citing potential “legal issues” moving forward, but told Noice he was “just as angry as you are.”
“All I can say is, keep a record of everything being lost or damaged (as result of the work),” Fraunfelter went on.
In other news, city council passed a resolution to join the Southeast Ohio Recycling Terminal (SORT), a council of governments between multiple cities and villages between Athens and Hocking counties.
Logan is the fifth member to join, after the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District, the Village of Amesville, and the cities of Athens and Nelsonville.
The vote did not come without an extensive discussion, however, and was nearly tabled for a future meeting, given questions about the scope of SORT.
Crissa Cummings, director of the Athens-Hocking Recycling Center (AHRC), which is dissolving its services into SORT, attempted to clear some confusion.
She explained that potential parcel fees, a debate covered previously in the Logan Daily, are not directly tied with the council of governments; they are, instead, a potential funding source for the solid waste district’s 15-year financial plan.
The sentiment of Councilman Jim Robinson, to “trust the expertise of the (streets and alleys) committee,” eventually prevailed. Only Councilman Michael Berry voted against the resolution’s passage, after his motion to table pending further discussion died without a second.
“I’m pleased that Logan is going to be a member of SORT,” Cummings told the Logan Daily about the decision. “No one likes it when useful items are thrown away and I look forward to partnering with Logan to make recycling easier and more accessible.”
Another notable bit of passed legislation Tuesday came as an emergency, and that was the creation of a local building department. The newly-formed department will contract the private company Toole & Associates, based in Columbus, to carry out its services.
“It’s been needed for a long time, and will be beneficial to local builders,” Robinson said about the legislation. Logan code enforcement officer Joe Posey was also at the meeting Tuesday, and spoke about the potential benefits.
Prior to the department’s creation (and until it goes into effect), contractors in the city had to go through the state’s building department, which Posey noted has a “much slower turnaround time” than a local entity.
“There is a lot of development coming at us, and this is a more efficient way of handling it,” the code enforcement officer said.
Robinson went on to note that the outsourcing to Toole & Associates would be cheaper than hiring an in-house engineer of similar experience and expertise, which he said the city does not have available funds for at the moment.
Email at rmorris@logandaily.com
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