Transcript

What's

Next time

we

>> Sorry,

>> Testing. Testing.

It's on

>> I think

piece is when you have another

microphone that's on

>> Can we just try and

one.

>> We might need to unplug two if we can.

>> No, that's Mr. Stall.

>> Well, it has his on constantly.

You want to try?

Let's see.

>> Good. Good. Good. We passed it down the

line.

>> We're doing something.

>> I don't know what it was.

>> Three. Two.

The bamboo. The bamboo is wonderful.

>> Is it? You need more?

>> I will.

>> Come get the snow.

>> I will.

>> Yeah. Well, you got to burn this

weekend,

>> Uncle

said.

>> There you go.

You two,

>> can we hear us?

>> Yeah. Something's on YouTube.

>> That's us.

>> I'm just not sure.

Don't think we're speaking.

>> We'll call the meeting to order. Wow.

So, if everyone could please stand for

the pledge and a moment of silent

reflection, please.

Pledge

>> allegiance to the flag of the United

States of America and to the republic

for it stands, one nation under God,

indivisible, with liberty and justice

for all.

Thank you,

>> clerk. Could we have a roll call,

please? Here

>> present

>> here.

>> Present.

>> Did everyone get a chance to take a look

at the April 2nd minutes? Any questions

or concerns?

Hearing all hearing none.

>> All in favor?

>> I

>> I've got a text.

>> Uh there are no public hearings tonight.

We do have u

communications and announcements.

>> Nobody push it. We're all using John.

>> Just talk. His will pick all of it up.

>> I promise. I sound wonderful right now,

don't I?

>> You know, I have nothing to push. So,

hey, you know,

I don't know how to tell you.

>> Lights. Lights do not affect sound.

How to run the equipment.

>> She is

citation. Sure.

>> Test.

>> Test.

>> It's better.

>> Test.

>> It's not echoing.

Is this part of that point we showed

yesterday?

>> No,

they said we'll count how many we have

for all the schools.

Besides the fact that this year my

school find a new job because

elementary

>> are you on the website

there?

>> Well, we have a two main items for

communications announcements. We have a

presentation on the comprehensive plan

and an update from Mid Ohio Water and

Sewer. Um,

just for the audience know, this is a

strictly anformational presentation and

update for the city of London. It's not

going to be a town hall meeting. Um, due

to the focus of the session, there will

be no open questions and answer period

for the audience. Um, if you do have

questions or concerns for middle Ohio

Water Sewer District, just please reach

out to them or encourage you guys to go

to their board meetings for that. So,

with that, um, first up, let's go with

if you're ready, please.

sugar.

>> Yes.

Sound check. Testing. Can you hear me?

All right.

>> Might want to just tilt it a little bit.

Tilt it back a little bit.

>> This way.

>> Yep. That will pick you up the well.

>> All right, good.

>> Is everything up there? All right.

>> Good evening. My name is Kim Littleton.

I'm from OM Adviserss. I was involved in

this plan as a project manager over the

past several years and it's been a real

pleasure to work with community. I

>> can hear the I can hear

Or is it is it on the computer?

>> Was it in the plan for

>> if you want to I think it's going to

hurt something. Okay. Can you see it?

Okay. SL

back.

>> Okay.

So, I've been asked this evening to um

update you on what we did with the plan,

and you are in the process, I

understand, of having a third reading uh

for the plan. You've gone through two

readings before this. And I'll just give

an overview of the plan because I'm sure

some of you, if not most, all of you

have dug into it and your thoughts and

ideas concerning how you will work with

the plan is it uh as you move through in

the next few years as the leadership in

the community.

The overview

um starts with and I I think really the

key part of it is that um conference

plans are done or supposed to be done uh

once one is completed about every five

years. Uh it seems like you're going to

some communities think maybe we should

do these every year. Again, how much

things change, how much the built

environment changes over time and how

much demands on cities uh fiscally and

economically

and u socially in the communities in

order to maintain their populations and

maintain their their citizens and their

infrastructure. The plan basically

provides a a clear roadmap. It's align

the land use that you already have that

exists with the infrastructure. In other

words, the infrastructure is extended

and I know you you are your

infrastructure supplied by the county

and you're involved in decisions about

where the infrastructure is extended,

how it's maintained. And it's important

to time your land use decisions with the

extension of the infrastructure and not

to have to force utilities all over the

region and then eventually have to pay

for them. A judicious expansion

utilities is is very important. Um, it

also the plan has takes a regional

perspective and we we started the plan

out saying you're basically in the

middle of a of a growing region.

Columbus was number two in the country

uh behind Indianapolis in growth. You're

impacted definitely by that and you

probably been feeling it for quite a bit

of time, but just recently I think it's

its growth is moving further west and

you're seeing an interest in this area

in not only the the commerce but also in

population migration and also it it also

supports a more predictable decision

making for council. you have something

to fall back on and something to base

some of your policy making on as well,

especially when it comes to land use and

zoning decisions.

So, what are we asking you to do

tonight? Uh, well, first adopt the plan.

Um, that would be great. I think the

earlier you do that, the better. Um,

you'll be using it to guide

the code to help you migrate or

transition to working on your zoning

update. And some communities think they

have their plans up to date and then

they find out when a new developer comes

to town, he he finds another loophole.

So, it's important to keep those plans

up to date. As far as the planning

process concerned,

>> I need you to pause.

It's not

>> pause. Okay.

>> We're just having a good old time here.

>> I think it's this um

cables messing with our stuff.

There's no live feed, but it says it's

still live.

>> Nobody's

>> Yeah, it's frozen.

>> Hold it up and have it running right

now.

>> I think it came back on.

>> It's back on. Do you have it back on?

Thank you.

>> Sorry about that.

>> In brief, the planning process uh began

with the first two steps of community

analysis where we investigated the

community, learned as much as we could

about it. I've been through a number of

times coming kind of a shortcut. I live

from Delaware going down to the

Cincinnati area. Um

we also used it as a means of um getting

a good handle on what how the community

perceived the public perceived growth

and development in the community and we

got some good feedback from folks both

online and the surveys that we put up

but also in the public meetings that we

had. Uh we had good feedback from them

as we progressed through the plan. We

had two open houses. We had a survey

that was sent out and we had attendance

at I know at other meetings with

stakeholders. Uh we interviewed them.

Those are folks in the community who

have a vested interest in the growth and

development of the town. They can be

property owners, they can be business

owners and they can be executive

councils like you or members of council.

Uh we also had a steering committee for

oversight and that was basically to keep

us on track uh keep us uh glued to the

process. We got good feedback from them

as far as directions concerned and it's

really a two-track process we went

through. One is a datadriven one which

we get information and we collected GIS

information, census information and even

research that we did as part of the

housing analysis where we looked at data

and records from from different uh data

sources and then a process of getting

informed by the community. And toward

the end of the whole project, those two

uh proceed those two procedures or

processes uh link together.

As far as key takeaways concerned,

something that as you go through the

plan and if you haven't already and you

go through implementing it, um that the

community analysis was the first part

that we looked at income and housing and

I'm doing this a little more detail,

land use, zoning, place typologies, and

I'll explain what that means in a

minute. what some of how some of the

developed or underdeveloped areas of the

community could grow in the future, what

the condition of the infrastructure was,

where it was located, where planned

extensions were going to take place. We

had the steering committee o oversight

and then we we also followed our our

data first um uh promise. As far as the

growth and developments community of the

community is concerned, we usually adopt

a what we call a framework. It's not a

real specific examination, but it sets

up something on which you can structure

future decisions. Uh the way we did that

is we first have targeted focus areas.

We look at specific sites in the

community. We worked with the

administration in selecting those ones

that see some promise as far as having,

you know, some investment recently,

having interest in in redevelopment or

infill. Also there's also their location

is is u beneficial.

We also uh looked at mobility how the

community is connected. We all think of

cars as being the main thing but today

there's more and more investment in

active transportation which includes

bicycles and pedestrian uh

transportation. You have access to a

regional trail system right at your back

door. And one of the key components of

that was looking at ways in which we

could tie your current uh pedestrian

system into that and to connect other

parts of the community and it's a very

walkable at least the core center part

of the community the neighborhood

surrounding it and it makes is very

beneficial today people are looking for

smaller communities. One of the reasons

that Columbus has been growing so fast

is because of small communities like

London and the reason for that is first

they get a good value. they they get

housing which is a lot less expensive

than where they're coming from which is

basically in the southwest part of the

country and they also have jobs here or

in Columbus or in the Columbus area.

Then we also wanted to be uh make things

as predictable as possible with respect

to zoning. In other words, I in some

cases a zoning code should be like a a a

recipe book. It gives you a picture of

what you want to see, what you want to

have in the community, the type of

housing, the type of commercial

development, the type of industrial

development, what it looks like, how

it's laid out, what the character of

that development is, and then from there

it tells you how to put it together, and

then after that, um, you can check to

see whether it turned out the way the

picture showed you. So, we'll be giving

you that picture with the vision for the

community and then we we when the zoning

code is updated, it will give you what

the ingredients are to go into creating

the code and then also how to put them

together uh over time. So, it's kind of

like we're cooking something here or you

should be thinking about that way as you

move into the future. And then it also

gets away from reactive decision- making

uh where you have running around trying

to put out fires all the time. you have

a a path of actually constructing

something progressing over time.

So, one of the things that we we um use

in trying to get a better understanding,

not only getting a better understanding

of the community, but also to set up a

new kind of geography

for your for regulating development. And

that geography is based on the type of

place that you will be seeing future

investment either infill or

redevelopment.

And that's based on what current context

is.

And that has a lot to do with things

like most communities if you think about

it

have most mature communities anyway have

a center to them and outside that center

they have a a neighborhood of a of a

decent density, a walkable kind of

compact development. historically the

older part of the community. Several

neighborhoods that have grown out from

that over time

that are similar to it, urban in nature.

And then outside that ring is a suburban

uh development pattern. And then you

have the corridors that pierce those

neighborhoods

and as well as that in addition to that

districts like industrial districts, you

know, hospital areas, campuses, things

like that. So we tried to take that

model and look at the through that model

lens and see how we could kind of um I

guess transpose that on the community

and you know you have grown you you're

nice comm there are some communities

that be envious or a lot of them that

are some that don't have a downtown that

are a lot of them the inner ring suburbs

of Columbus if you know some of those

don't have a characteristic downtown

because they were built in the 60s and

70s and were a bedroom community that

thrived off of Columbus. They don't have

the historic core or historic center

like you do.

Uh this type of development guides the

form, character, and its intensity. So,

we're not thinking about just land use

anymore. We're not thinking about use as

being the driver that you have

residential, commercial, industrial. You

have districts that are more described

as a neighborhood district or a corridor

district or a center district in the

community. Again, the context is what's

important. So, what you'll be asking

yourself as you go through and these

projects come up, is there the right

type of is this the right type of

development here in this location? And

that location is really important

to understand.

So, just to show you how that works out

in plan,

first we focused on the corridors, the

focus areas, and then infill

opportunities. And you see the red on

the map

indicates what the major corridors are

and the commercial developments along

those. Then the focus areas u I'll show

you those in a minute and then infill

opportunities and we did that at a much

smaller fine range scale than this map

shows. This is a generalized map of the

pattern. The idea was to protect

established neighborhoods and also we

got a real good lesson in agriculture

preservation, how important that is to

your economy here. Um, you're sitting

also in one of the most agriculturally

rich areas of the state. And that is an

attribute where that a lot of

communities don't have where farmers are

forced to add nutrients to the soil.

Lots of fertilizer and it's mostly clay.

It's not that fertile.

It could be also, you know, wet,

extremely wet on the other side, but you

have a good fertile soil here, a natural

soil that's easy to toh grow crops on.

And we also looked into it's more

specifically the housing. It was we were

asked to look at the housing economy in

a little more detail than we did the

other components. And so we hired a

consultant to help us with that. And in

the housing assessment very generally if

you look at the report we have a summary

in within the text itself

and then the appendix there's more

detailed charts and graphs. if you

really get into that kind of thing.

There's a strong demand uh for mid to

upper price ranges in housing. Um but

there's also a limited supply right now

meeting that demand. So keeping up with

that growth um is not easy to do and

also the lower income households that

are in the community are facing barriers

u barriers to entering the housing

market not only financing but in

locating housing, housing that fits

their needs. uh housing that is a

variety, not just a three-bedroom uh two

bath, twocar garage house. They're

looking for something that meets their

needs that's modern if possible. Uh a

variety of housing so you can age in

place is one of the goals of the plan so

you aren't forced to go live somewhere

else is because the housing isn't

doesn't accommodate you.

The direction that we thought was

important for the community to take was

and to consider was to expand the

housing types that you have. Not not

just the subdivisions in that sense

where you're building more or less the

same unit at one after the other single

family unit. Would you expand those

types to include, you know, single

family, two family, three family, four

family, multi-unit buildings that are

part of the neighborhood. And there's a

there's a trend going on right now to

try and get a handle on the

affordability crisis, and that's to

offer missing middle housing. How many

of you ever heard of missing middle

housing before?

On the spectrum of housing out there,

what's mostly being built is uh single

family, as I mentioned before, two or

threebedroom house, two baths, twocar

garage, uh sometimes three-car garage,

enough garages to handle all their cars,

but not the kind of housing that people

need in the community and to feel part

of the community and to live within some

of the existing neighborhoods. And so

they're starting to design housing and

it's a it's getting the attention of the

federal government and also the state of

Ohio. Housing that looks like a single

family home is designed to look like a

single family home. A little larger

single family home, but it also has two

two units in it, three units in it, four

units. It can have up to six units and

still maintain the size of a single

family home. So designing it that way

and putting it in the neighborhood makes

it more compatible. So we don't end up

with the type of single corridor units

on either side, two, three floors, have

a fire access at both ends that we're

all familiar with in apartment

buildings. This gives people a chance to

live in housing within the neighborhood

of the same scale and character as

what's already there. Then the same

holds true for redevelopment. if you

have an opportunity to do that in some

areas the focus areas are are examples

of ways to do that and that's one of the

reasons here in the plan and then also

it's important to align the zoning with

the real market conditions and what we

mean by that is if you cycle back to

missing middle that's the demand for now

and we're able to in the zoning code to

accommodate what those types of middle

missing middle housing are and what they

look like uh what their pattern form and

character is then it'll be easy for you

and easier for the outside development

community or those in the community

developing to see what they're what what

the community is thinking about as far

as future development

and with respect to mobility and

connecting up the community. Uh we found

that it

the gaps in the down in the area were

one getting access to the downtown and

then also access from the neighborhoods

to the parks and schools. It has a lot

to do with the current road network that

you have right now. And there are some

areas in which you have a really strong

gritted pattern and it starts to fall

apart as you move out of the community.

So it's better connected into the core

but as we move out it makes it more

difficult to move around in a car in a

bike or or to walk.

So our strategy for doing that is first

of all prioritize sidewalks and the

crossings that they have to make them

safe. Uh expand the trails and bike

routes. um particularly at the south

eastern part of the community connects

to key destinations

and phase improvements uh over time and

that's just to make things more

economical

and and more staged.

So one of the places we see probably the

greatest economic opportunity are

activity along your existing corridors

and those are your industrial corridors

you see in the blue color and in the red

core your existing uh roadway corridors

and the reason we're we feel the

approach you should take for that is to

um one think about infill development

because that pattern as I mentioned

before we looked at land that was

underutilized

as well as land that was um that was

vacant. and that underutilized land is

there's plenty of room to grow even

within the corporate limits of the

community.

The way to do that is through infield

development also uh with improved uh

design of the projects and access and

the zoning code is one thing can help

you achieve that. Access is important

along these corridors to try and limit

the places that you have access. Combine

uh access points or curb cuts, have

access to the rear, connect these

neighborhoods, uh set up a network that

supports the corridor where you have

alternate routes to get through the

community. And that's what you're really

missing as you move out along 42

and and 142 outside the community. you

don't have any ways of getting into if

say for instance those roads are closed

off there aren't many options to get

through the community without having to

drive through some single family

residential neighborhoods and then also

mixed use opportunities um there along a

core is a great way to do that put

housing mixed in with resident with

commercial um you can have institutional

uses along the corridor that's the

critical part of it because the more mix

greater the mix you have uses the less

um pressure you put on the roadway

network because you don't have to travel

as far to get to your daily needs. So

that's a critical thing and Columbus are

doing experimenting with putting multif

family housing within

uh shopping centers. Strip centers were

built in the 60s and 70s because they

have immense parking and taking

advantage of that space and then people

can meet their daily needs. It's not an

ideal environment, shopping environment

like a downtown is, but it is an

environment in which people don't have

to get in their car and drive to the

place and then go out in the major

roadway corridors and jam with the

traffic. That's one benefit of mixed use

development. And then also balance that

with revitalizing the downtown. We don't

want one to get ahead particularly the

the corridor development outside the

community to get ahead of the downtown.

And

you've all seen a cycle, some of us have

been around long enough, cycles of

downtowns emptying out and then now

they're going through a cycle of filling

back up because they're being becoming

desirable places to to live and shop.

So there's infill and redevelopment and

a critical fact part of that is public

space improvements. And we like to think

of the street as being one of the

critical places to make an investment.

If you'll notice in the plan, we showed

cross-sections of like four different

kinds depending on

how you wanted to utilize the roadway

and make it a public space, return it to

what originally was before. Have you

ever seen old photos of old downtowns

where they have a trolley car or a

street car running through the downtown

and there's horses pulling a a a

carriage and at the same time a guy's

riding a bike and their kids running

across the street all in the street. No,

there's there's just mayhem and that

took place in a much slower world. But

ideally, that's what that realm was

built for. and it could return to that

if we work on ways in which we can slow

down movement.

We had four different focus areas um

that we felt where there were targeted

investment. We had the highest interest

in the public investment and we also

prioritized excuse me infrastructure and

redevelopment and partnership with land

owners in those areas. So those were the

focused areas up in the north in this in

the core part of the community

neighborhood adjacent to the core and

then down where we have an existing uh

park.

Of course it's you can't we can't go

without our community parks.

The best the way to get a cart really

well utilized is to have pedestrian

access to it. It seems counterintuitive

to drive to a park and then walk around.

Ideally you'd want to walk to the park,

walk around and then go home. So that

radius of where you have a park and

where you live or have a park and where

you work is critical. And the more parks

that we have that are in integrated into

the neighborhoods, the better.

And

what this plan changes in the community

or what it tries to do is it moves from

a a a situation where you probably are

doing and we we notice this when we talk

to stakeholders case by case decisions

to more policy guided. In other words,

we have a policy document here is what

it is. And it's based on a policy

hierarchy that has has starts with the

goal. There's an objective and then

there's action steps preceding that. and

we have those laid out here and we have

a time frame. They're hooked to those.

So, this provides clear expectations for

developers. They know what the community

is investing in. They know where they're

going to invest it and has a stronger

legal policy and foundation. If you have

a plan and you have a code that goes

with that, the code has a lot more

legitimacy based if it's based on

comprehensive plan.

So, it's all a plan is only uh

successful if it's implemented. And the

first thing to do I we recommend and the

plan recommended is update the zoning

code. That's your short-term priority.

In the midterm uh work on the capital

improvements alignment capital

improvements program aligned with with

population growth and public private

partnerships. I think in the downtown

you have that kind of thing and some of

these industrial areas the other kind of

thing. Uh keeping that going is

important and then a phase approach to

managing cost.

So the action items as I mentioned

before, initiate zoning code updates,

prioritize those sidewalk and

connectivity aspects of it. People are

out walking today. They're out biking

today. You have a tremendous asset here

with the with the U of the trail and

we've identified a couple of focus areas

that we felt were were were ripe for

immediate investment for early

investment. And at the same time we're

doing a sort of exploring for funding

tools, grants, incentives. The state of

Ohio has a program where if you have a

mixeduse project in mind, they'll help

fund it. A developer comes in and wants

to do a a retail on the lower floor,

offices and apartments on the above

floor, uh, you know, in Columbus, there

are a lot of developers taking advantage

of that. They'll help underwrite that

for you. They're trying to spur that

kind of development at the state level

and get local communities to do it.

So, long-term outcomes from the uh from

doing this and following a plan, you

have a stronger tax base. Everybody

loves that. Uh you have more housing

options to choose from. Uh you have

probably a safer uh and better connected

community. And you have a vibrant

downtown and corridors. One of the keys

to getting the downtown continuously

operating is to have a strong

population in the perimeter perimeter of

the downtown supporting the downtown. If

you prioritize housing, that's the

location to do it to build the

population up. Many years ago in

Columbus, if you've ever been to Short

North in the 70s, that was, you know,

just a lot of empty storefronts and

spaghetti places and coney dogs and it

was just, you know, just kind of a

nowhere space between OSU and the

downtown. It wasn't until investment was

named in adjacent neighborhoods that

they eventually got galleries there and

they eventually that turned into housing

which turned into more retail. So now we

have an extremely vibrant corridor with

the same urban problems that we have

other places, but it is very vibrant

connected corridor in Columbus. And when

they put the cap on that reduced that

friction between the downtown and the

rest of that corridor, just those visual

enhancements and physical improvements

and having people close into

the mixeduse environments, the housing,

the office, and everything else, they

could just walk to work and back. It's

very easy.

So what's next? Uh obviously we'd like

for you to adopt the plan. We can check

off our list and say great went through

the process. That's for us. I'm selfish.

Sorry about that. Uh establish it as

official policy guys. I mentioned before

uh allows you as council to direct staff

to implement some of the plan and then

we really feel it's important to monitor

the progress. Um this is really

something I think to some extent helps

with your constituents. This is just an

example table you can set up any way you

want to but has the objectives, actions

and a way to measure them in each one of

the policy statements in there. So you

have goal one through six and then you

have the years over there and you

identify what year you're going to

implement that particular u goal and you

move from there. It's just you could do

this any way you so and you show your

constituents that you're making progress

on implementing the plan.

And that gives them an idea that the

investment you made off in it is paying

off and that you there is a certain

degree of accountability with it too. So

that's one of the reasons why we feel

really important to do that is to

measure your progress that could be in

in year 2027 how many miles of bike lane

did you put in the community? Uh or

measured by square foot of retail space

that was added or something like that.

quantify it and make it available to

community on a regular basis. So, that's

the end of my presentation. It was meant

to be overview. I did a lot of the weeds

like the plan does. Um, if you have any

questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

I hope I haven't over my time frame

here.

>> Yes, I do.

So I have

>> we're gonna try this. So I have multiple

pages of notes as going through that

right now. I'm not even

>> I know we're not going to get in the

weeds on that. But my biggest questions

then are how do how do we use this final

draft? And I know you've addressed some

of that but if we adopt it, we're

adopting it as is. I'm asking how do

other governments address this once it's

presented to them before

do they have meetings? Do they suggest

changes? Do those changes get sent to

you? Do those get added to the plan? I

mean, this is kind of a working document

or or is this plan as you presented the

plan that we're going to have and no

other changes to be made on here? We

hadn't anticipated any other changes

because we have run by uh u the city

with their comments incorporated those.

We had we had the stakeholder comments

that we put into it. We had the comments

from the public uh on our progress of

the plans. We've gotten a lot of input

on it. Uh our intention is not to go

back and go through it. And I know

you're on your third reading, so that

means you're serious about adopting it.

There's that 30-day referendum or

holding period you have that anyone has

an opportunity to provide input. Um we

feel that you know it's there probably

are things that but plans take several

years to put together. We noticed there

was some change even in the two years as

you even move into the adoption process

things happen. So we understand it

changes but you also have an opportunity

to update it and then sooner you update

it obviously the more uh use you'll get

out of it but I think it sets the

foundation uh for you to start

implementing things. I would hate to

have to get for you to get caught up on

how a word is used or how whether or not

you like that certain objective or goal

as opposed to just finding those things

like we recommended as far as the uh

focus areas. Get started on it and and

move with it. Um so that's been our

plan. That's what we understood when we

were coming out here. We were on the

tail end of your process of of the plan.

Um but I you know be happy to answer any

questions that you have.

We're not That'll be all night. We're

not

>> sure. Okay. That's all right. That's all

right. Be happy to email those to you

directly.

>> Okay. But we don't want to do that.

Sure. Thank you.

>> Sure.

>> You all done?

>> All right. Well, yeah. Oh, still out.

I'm just going to go off his also. Thank

you very much for coming on out because

yeah, this you know even if hey we maybe

push it off one more reading just to

kind of hey go over all this again. I

know I'm going to want to watch the

video just to kind of see this and kind

of think about how that is. Are you able

to video us or uh email us your

presentation there? Yeah,

>> possibly go I can leave it. You probably

could pull it right off on here.

>> She could it's in a thumb drive right

now. She could pull it off here

>> and Yep. So, that's all very good just

for us to be able to see since I know

that's not in the actual video here.

>> Um, my thing was kind of along with the

adding items later on how we might be

able to. Uh, surveys is my primary

concern there. Um, I know you discussed

how we have infrastructure that is

primarily jotted or kind of documented

on what condition it's in and that's one

with the storm sewer.

>> Mhm.

there isn't very much information on

that right now.

>> So would you recommend that that's

something for us to pursue and add in

there later on ourselves?

>> Yeah, I think I it's in the capital

improvements end of it. Um I think with

the storm source situation and um

you

tend a lot of things that are buried

around underground people have a

tendency to forget about. It can be

cable, it can be water and storm sewer.

Um, and one of those things that is

difficult to do is access it when

there's a problem. So, avoiding that

problem with the technology that we have

today, uh, with the camera technology,

the robotic technology, it's real easy

to maintain those systems without having

to wait until they um, fail. And so

that's one of the things that you know

in looking at your system here obviously

there are parts of it are newer other

parts that are older I would imagine the

part in the core I don't I didn't sense

that there was a real issue with with

combination sewers right now or that you

attack that before I can't remember um

but that as a piece of infrastructure is

important because if you're going to be

expanding then you want to think about

how that's going to influence your

current capacity to treat uh the

effluent and your current capacity uh to

handle the flow into the community.

>> So, thank you very much. And yeah, I

guess I'm that would be more of a future

one. I guess one that we do currently

have is the sidewalks that we just got.

Should we put that in here now or kind

of just have it as a side note or kind

of item to go with it?

>> The sidewalks.

>> Yep. Just kind of the sidewalk surveys.

I hard the the the the

saying goes between uh planners and

engineers and landscape architects that

if you build a pedestrian infrastructure

which can include accommodative

sidewalks, pedestrian use paths which

usually wider than than sidewalks

usually 8 to 10 feet where you can

multi-use you know rollerblades,

scooters,

um walking

Those

are a priority or should be a priority

in the community because when you build

those, the people come. If they're not

there, they don't use them. The state

with the n largest number of miles of

trails and pedestri pedestrian paths is

Minnesota. It also is the state with the

at one time with the it's growing in

other states now. You probably caught up

with them. uh the largest number of

golfing holes uh in the country. Now,

you think about their climate, you begin

to wonder what's going on here. Well, I

went up to Minnesota one time in the

summer and it's a zoo. There are people

all over themselves in the state parks

and the local parks and on the golf

courses. They utilize those facilities

and really utilize them well and they

just keep building them. So, building it

in a location is convenient to the

neighborhood, building it in a hierarchy

like you have right now set up with the

trail system, tying in your own

pedestrian sidewalk system, uh it makes

it a lot more enjoyable. I know I

haven't done this route, but I've done

the route going through to uh uh um

uh let's see, it's west of here

to uh Yellow Springs is a great path.

you get to Yellow Springs and you've got

the restaurants, the ice cream places.

It's just a wonderful place to stop,

spend the day, get back on the trail and

move out, head toward Dayton or any

other place you want to go. So, those

kind of trips people are doing more and

more of because they're affordable. They

involve your family. Um, they make good

use of summertime. So, I I think an

investment in that is one way to foster

your build your economy, attract people

to your community, getting them here on

enjoyment, they may think about coming

out and living here. So that is a really

good way of setting. It used to be that

companies would decide to locate

somewhere based on where they felt they

could get the most resources or it was

water or they mineral resources or

whatever and particularly water and we

have plenty of it here in Ohio. But

today it's a different approach.

Businesses go to communities looking for

talent and talent only goes to

communities where they have something to

do.

So you combine a community that has

something to do and the talent that

comes there to do things then the

businesses follow and that's been a

trend in the past 10 to 15 years where

you create the place you enhance the

place you advertise and promote the

place and then people are attracted

there to live or you entertain

themselves or or recreate

>> and eventually locate. So that that is

the main attraction tool. It works the

best of any we've ever seen. Um, and

it's worked for a lot of communities

that we've worked for.

>> And last one is real quick, but thank

you very much cuz I love to hear about

parks, trails, and on sidewalks, getting

updates.

>> Um, how would you recommend follow

through on who is bringing initiatives

to council to either change the zoning

codes or having these different items,

projects possibly done? Who would be the

driving force that would be, I guess,

bringing those out? Is that just

administration?

>> A combination of it can be it can be the

administration uh proactively being

involved with the development community.

It can be the chamber chamber of

commerce. It can be at the county level

working with the county in their

economic development program that they

have and at the state level and the

connections they made there. It all

happens at different levels and um

getting the word out about this

community promotion wise. We had a a a

section or chapter in there about

wayfinding in the community. That's

critical. Um having a real good solid

wayfinding system. That's signage that

is um

signage that is a system that has the

same logo, has the same color, has the

same font on the lettering. It has

different heights. Whether you're

dealing with pedestrian scale, you're

going along the highway. It's some of

it's um directional signage, some of

it'sformational signage. That

combination of signage is going to

enhance the pedestrian experience. It

also do another thing. It'll make better

utilization of your parking downtown.

If you're able to channel people around

the downtown to find a place to park,

whether it's the public parking space or

even on street parking and where that's

available, people will use it rather

than circling the block and trying to

figure things out on their own. So if

you have that well signed, you will

start to alleviate a lot of the issues

you have with parking in some parts of

the downtown. So those things, the

wayfinding is critical and having a

unified signage system that advertises

the community that starts at the at the

uh at the trail, moves people through

the community, shows where the

businesses are. I in Delaware, they put

a signing system up in the downtown

where they have this these magnetic

uh metal pieces that are slotted in and

it's a directory sign and whenever a

business comes and goes, they just make

a new one up, slot it in there and then

they go. It's not permanent, but they

have the name of the business right on

there, right on the street. So, you

don't have to wander around. It goes all

the way to fancy kiosk, the push button

and all that stuff too that they have

some downtowns. The idea of the

wayfinding

is important and you have one great

asset here for that and that's the

courthouse. It I don't imagine a lot of

you have told people that come to town,

you know, go down downtown, turn left at

the courthouse, you can see it as you're

coming into town. It's a great

wayfinding tool. Uh it's a landmark that

people can see for miles. Start there

and set up a system. That's important.

It's not that expensive to do. That is

the one tab that says my favorite item.

>> Oh, really? Oh, good, good, good, good.

Glad you like that.

>> I don't think we should put McDonald's

on there because I'll say go left that

probably more often than

>> That's right. And I I I would make a

trek on your own sometime. Come out to

Delaware. Go to Warthington. They have

one of the most historic wayfinding

systems I've ever seen. They've had it

for a long time and it's worked really

well to get your way around uh old

Worthington

>> uh and other in other neighborhoods in

in Columbus.

>> Thank you very much. That's all I had.

Thank you very much.

>> Any other questions?

>> All right. Thank you.

>> Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

>> Thank you.

All right. with

up next middle.

>> Good evening everybody. Thanks for uh

invitation tonight.

I'm going to give you a little bit of

the journey that um

Mid Ohio's been on for the past

gosh two and a half years here in the

city of London. So we'll uh get into

everything and I'll answer for some

questions you guys may have as we go

through this. If not, we'll have some

time at the end of the presentation.

>> Arrow down. You like that?

So you the first thing you know when I

started thinking about this presentation

like um what what was conversations had

three years ago for London to come to

Mino and say hey we like to be a partner

in your organization

um and we talked to the mayor and and

some council people at the time and

these are just some of the things that

came out of those conversations. um

operational and staffing deficiencies.

Um it's hard to keep certified people in

our industry. Um I think a lot of people

are aware of that uh infrastructure and

operational challenges that were faced

by the city. Um

and just a quick little thing when this

started, you know, I had proved to

myself why did London need middle,

right? We were going through all these

things and these were some of the things

that were listed and you know and on the

surface it was well you got a you know

water plant has got capacity you had a

new water plant that was built you had

you know the west plant um and until I

went and looked at the facilities and

saw really what you were facing kind of

what made me really say hey we need to

help these guys out. It's the same thing

we did at Plane City. It's the same

thing we do at Mount Sterling. Mount

Sterling is not a partner, but we've

operated that facility since about 2015.

So, that's kind of what brought us to

the table um initially um with the city.

Um capital investment needs. Obviously,

everybody is aware of what we're facing

as far as wastewater and water capital

economic growth demands. You just heard

a lot of that in the last presentation,

what you guys are facing, what we're

facing throughout Madison County. Um,

and regulatory compliance. Um, high VPA

is, um, always finding ways to reduce

limits, increase testing. Um, that's

never going to go away. So, those are

some of the factors that we looked at

when we came on board with London. Um,

recruiting was a big a big concern for

the city. Um, you have a class 4 waste

recruitment plant, the highest

classification in the state of Ohio. Um,

it's difficult to find a class 4

operator to run that facility. Um, your

water plant's a class three. Um, again,

not easy to find people that have not

only the certification but the

experience to operate these facilities.

Um, so you know, Mid Ohio came in and

this is kind of an example of what we

bring to the table. Um, we have a staff

of one class 4 um operator. We have two

people working on their class 4s now.

And that's not taking a test. That's

writing a whole document of sections of

a lot of things. It's more of a

management type tool that the Ohio EPA

uses. We have eight class three waste

water, four class two water. That

changed today. We have another one. We

actually have five now. Uh you can go on

down the list. Um two maintenance

mechanics seven and the distribution

collection system. Um

next thing and we we knew coming into

this was aging treatment facilities.

um go by the wastewater treatment plant,

you know, looks fairly new and still

looks good and all that, but it's 20

years old. The last expansion was done

in two 2008. Um so, you know, you're

facing about that 20 year mark. Um

equipment starts failing, pump starts

failing about the 15 year to 20 year

mark. So, we're right there. Um the

Westwater plant, we call it avenue plant

now. But, um really, really old, really,

really old facility. I don't know the

age on it but it's really really old. Um

so we we were aware of those issues. Um

the distribution system was also showed

a lot of age. Um the city had an asset

management plan that was done by uh

engineer strand and associates listed a

lot of water and sewer lines to reach

their useful life. Um it's not just the

water line. When you look at the water

line, there's valves, there's hydrants,

right? Valves have about a 40-year

useful life. Hydrant about the same. We

start taking inventory of those. We kind

of knew where we're at on use useful

life of those um components.

Uh you know, wastewater um plant. The

biggest challenge that I think the city

faced at that time was really the plant

was okay. you have some capacity there,

but the capacity in the sanitary sewer

lines is really a big factor. Um the

lines in town are very small. For

example, the line coming from the Sharp

Avenue lift station is only 15 inch

diameter line. And we have Oakrun that's

about an 18 inch line. Um when I was in

Lancaster, our lines coming in were 54

inch and 48 inch. So you kind of know

the size difference that we're looking

at here. Obviously

building waste plants expensive. You

start placing sewer lines that's even

way more expensive than that. Um

operations

probably people that were around back

then. I'm sure you receive a lot of

water complaints from the water plant

and a lot of mechanical failures um due

to the age and some factors on that.

uh drinking water supply and

availability

um is something that we looked at and we

continue to look at it every day. Um

we'll kind of talk about kind of what

we've done to kind of address some of

that. So we went into this thing and

saying what's our what's our immediate

capital needs we or we looked at day

one. Um first is the you know water

reclamation facility. Um again the age

we're at u we estimate about dollar

investment is going to be needed just to

upgrade that plant change equipment

change drive units and those things that

will not increase the capacity of the

facility that's just maintaining what we

have uh Chrisman Avenue water treatment

plant

uh we commissioned a study on this

facility probably three to four months

ago. Um, we looked at that from the

aspect of source water one. So, source

water is your wells and we have six

wells out there. You guys know where the

facilities at. That's an issue in itself

because you're next to a railroad track,

you're next to electrical substation,

you're next to a creek. That uh well

would never be permitted today. Would

never be permitted today. Um, so that's

an issue. and just the overall condition

of the plant. Um the Eastwater treatment

plant um we looked at that we came on

board. We believe that it could be

operable. Um the Ohio EPA u required a

lot of additional testing at that

facility.

Um we also commission a study on that to

see that facility is really cost

effective and operate. It's a exchange

uh facility. you add um salts to the

water salt the water and you treat it

out in the system. Um at this time you

know we don't believe that plant is cost

effective to operate.

Um sanitary sewer system again size of

and line capacities is an issue and the

water distribution system um we'll talk

a little bit more about that you know

here um in the presentation.

Next same is economic development.

Again, you know, um at the time you had

a couple developments kind of um going

on. Landing was one of them that's

pretty well built out. And now you have

Johnson's Creek is another one. And you

got Madison Reserve as another one

coming on fairly soon. Uh we also know

that the uh developer here has plans for

about 4,500 homes and 5.5

um million cubic feet of commercial

industrial development. Huge

development. I mean you're going to

double the size of London overnight in

the next years. Um and our our goal is

always to reduce the burden on the

rateayers.

We believe that develop pacer

development, right? So we don't want to

put a sewer line or water line into

development. We don't do offsite

extensions for developers. We don't we

don't do that. Um we look at other ways

to kind of get that revenue. We'll talk

about that a little bit later. Um we're

our goals always have development paper

development.

And again, regulatory compliance um uh

really drinking water is the one getting

hit right now. You probably heard of

POS, you know, these forever chemicals

that are in your drinking water. Um

really about the only way you can treat

that with an RS system. Um that we

actually operate one in Mount Sterling

and we're looking at doing a couple of

those here with the district.

At the time you looked at the benefits

of regionalization um shared cost again

we'll talk about that here in a little

while improve efficiency when we looked

at that um two or three years ago how

Mid Ohio operates and how we're able to

save cost our operators are classified

both as a water operator and wastewater

operator. Almost all of our operators

have a water license and a sewer

license. So what does that mean? You see

go to a city you have water operators

and you pay those guys and you have your

wastewater operators right so we don't

have to pay two people to do the job

which is really advantage for us we need

to take a guy or person from

you know plane city down here we can do

that so that's a huge advantage that we

we realized early on uh better customer

service we continue to strive on

improving our customer service um we

made a lot of headway way. Um, we still

have a ways to go. Um, focused

leadership, that's always one they put

in regionalization. You know, our board,

we have a board trustee here tonight.

Uh, their only focus is water and sewer,

right? You guys have parks and, you

know, comp plans and police and fire.

So, we can focus only on one thing,

which is water and sewer, which probably

if you ask our board, that's enough um

for them.

One of the things I hear a lot and

probably some of our board is, you know,

man, you know, London, they gave away

all their assets. They gave away all

their assets and whatever we get in

return, right? You know, all these

assets were valued on the books at the

time, I think, for about $40 million

somewhere in that range. So, in reality,

you know, Middle High also took on a lot

of liabilities at the same time. Um, and

we knew this going into it. This is part

of our decision making process. So, we

took on about $40 million worth of debt.

$18 million was current and the um east

side trunk sewer, which we'll talk about

a little bit later, um, is another $22

million project. So, $40 million total

um that we we we took on aging

infrastructure. We were aware of the

condition of the facilities. We did our

due diligence fully aware of what we

were get ourselves into. Limited sewer

capacity. Um we've been looking at that

from day one.

Um you have issues here like every other

community in the world since nothing

even Chalkall Lake when they put that in

you'll have no ini problems, right? It

doesn't work like that. Um a failing

water distribution system. So, your

water system out there, your water lines

and your hydrants since June of 24,

uh, we've had 37 main breaks and 11

service line failures inside the city of

London.

That that's that's a lot. So, compare

that to Plane City. We've had two main

breaks in period of time. Now, I mean,

it's nothing I mean, no one you can't

you can't do anything about that. the

agent system pressures and all kinds of

things contribute to that. But, you

know, it's just an indication that, you

know, we have a lot of work to do out

there in that distribution system.

Um, expansion of of Oak Run, we looked

at that as well before the transfer

agreement was ever signed and executed.

Um, we looked at the, it's the London

wastewater plant, we call it Oakrun now.

Um, we thought, well, can we expand that

plan? It's designed right now is at 5.8

million gallons a day. What would it

take to take up to 10 million? That's

double the size. And that way mid Ohio

could have brought their sanitary seflow

into the facility. Well, engineering

engineering port came back at $200

million.

So obviously that wasn't a really good

option. People question um like why was

that so much? You know, we built the

plant and it's expandable. Anything's

expandable.

The problem that we found is when they

built the plant and designed it, if you

needed a 12inch pipe today, they put a

12 inch pipe in. They didn't say, "Well,

in 20 years you're going to need an

18inch pipe for a 24inch pipe." Um, so

that was a huge factor on why that cost

driven up so much. um when we looked at

it.

So some of the things that we've done

since u mid Ohio um all the assets of

London um interconnections to the

district water system and we'll talk

about that here in a little bit. U

reliable safe drinking water and avoid

restrictions. I don't know if we've had

any restrictions here at the city um

since we took over. um a lot of reasons

for that operationally and these

interconnections we'll we'll show here

in a minute a big part of that.

So in the past when London had issues

with their existing water plant, you

know what happened? You know, they we

had they had to put out hard water,

water quality went down, you know, a lot

of complaints started happening. What

we're able to do with these two

interconnections, one's at state route

38 by the old uh board of elections and

the other one's on state route 36 by

prison. We put both of those in. The

county put one in, we put one in. So

when water's needed here in London, we

open those valves and send water to the

city of London. That's what we're able

to do. So in 2025, we provided city of

London 65 million gallons of water just

in that calendar year. And that was a

lot of the old plant maybe had a

breakdown. They couldn't provide soft

water. Um a lot of different reasons why

that happened.

So if we were if we were separated and

city of London was paying mid Ohio for

this much water it would have been over

half million dollars.

So that's kind of gives you an idea kind

of what we're able to do. Um real

quickly the the prison the old

Springfield plant we call it now is

designed for 1.5 million a day and and

the west plant is designed for 1.5

million a day as well. Um, this is kind

of why we we get to where we where we

got our water from to do this. I mean,

mechanical failure failures at Chrisman.

Um, and we provide it's the same

treatment at old at the prison as it is

in town. It's a lime softening plant.

People usually would never even know

where the water came from. Um, actually

the water from the prison is a little

bit softer than what we we treat here in

London.

uh water restrictions have not been

required. That interconnections were not

here. You can see how we made up 65

million gallons of water. I mean, it's

almost impossible to do that.

So, the other thing we did for first

week we were we took over operations,

we raised the tower elevations, water

elevations in your towers. So prior to

us coming on, for whatever reason, they

ran the towers at the bottom of your

tower. So your million gallon tower was

probably only half million gallons. So

what does that affect? That affects your

flow and affects your capacity and your

pressure. Higher that water's in that

tower, the more pressure you're going to

have throughout your system. Um

equipment upgrades. We've done a lot

here at the uh the West plant. Uh we did

a leak detection program. We hired a

company to come in and do every water

line here in the city of London to see

if there's any leaks. I think we had

seven. They've all been fixed, but we'll

probably do that every 3 to five years

to come back and try to find our water

loss.

Um hydro flushing. Um I don't know when

the last time it happened. We did it

this year. Um and we do that every year.

It may be twice a year depending on how

much um you know iron and everything we

get out of the the hydrogen we do the

flushing

uh wastewater treatment plant op run. Um

we um some pumps in. We've had to do

some piping changes. Um finished a

dewatering um um program that the city

had started. um equipment replacements

and also done some evaluations on

improve the process control. What that

means is how we operate the plant. I

mean basically um and we've been able to

reduce our solids um output which saves

us a lot of money because you got to put

that sludge somewhere unfortunately and

um that costs a lot of money to uh to

take care of that process.

Um currently our economic development

projects

we have the Deer Creek Water Reclamation

Facility. That's the plant out there 70

and 42 Lafayette Plain City Road. Um

that is designed to be a 5 million

gallon day waste treatment plant

expandable up to 15 million gallons a

day.

Northern Water plant is the Plain City

area 161 corridor. We are now in the

design phase of a new water treatment

plant in that area. Uh they have an old

facility um designed for 1.1 million

gallons a day. You know, our projections

um believe we need 5 million gallons of

water a day up there in the next 10

years just from development.

>> They get did they get new approvals on

that one? because I was thinking that

plant was having issues for development

because of the size of it not being able

to

>> waste water plant

>> wast

yeah

storage expansion uh water towers you

when you put a 5 million gallon day

water treatment plant here in London you

really need 5 million gallons of water

in the a water tower um that's how EPA

that's what they want so right now we

have really three million if you add two

here in London and two at the prison.

So, we know we had to build another two

million gallon water tank and they're

between9 and$10 million. Um system

master planning, you know, we all our

maps where's water going to be needed,

how get it there, what's the most cost

cost effective way to get that done. Um

we're also getting ready to commission

the study for a London area water

treatment plant. Um, we're looking at

expanding the facility at the prison.

Uh, we have land there. We have wells

there. We have water there. Uh, we're

working with some people that have a lot

of water in that area, too. That could

benefit us. Um, that will probably be

probably about the same size

plant. Um, and then, um, sanitary sewer

interconnections.

um throughout the system we

we are looking at and this kind of gets

complicated but I'll try to do my best.

I believe that the city of London's

wastewater plant now oakr run should

really serve the existing boundaries of

London. I think we have the capacity to

do that. Um I think the plant can handle

that. Um but if you start getting out in

the areas that are looking to be annexed

either now or in the near future that

will probably going to the um Deer Creek

plant

and we have a we have a plan it in here

or not but I'll try to explain that a

little bit better here.

Capital investment everybody likes to

talk about money. Um, next five years

we're looking about investing $465

million.

That's wastewater plant for

plain city, two water plants, water

towers, water lines, sewer lines, all

that. Uh, long-term, we're looking at

another $355 million. You know, I

project that the 465 million will carry

us another 10-15 years. Even if

development comes the way they think

it's going to come. Now, if you get that

big, you know, industrial user, that

will throw everything off, you know, but

um right now we can't plan for that. Um

funding through multiple mechanisms. Um,

we had a meeting today with our

financial advisor Andy Brousard and what

we are going to do is look at every

option to find revenue tiffs, jets,

NCAs, all the alphabet soup, you know,

that are out there. We can't put it on

the backs of our customers. They they

can't afford that. Uh, new development,

you know, our capacity fees are are um

on the higher end. I'll put that out out

there. um a residential um sanitary tap

capacity fee is 10 grand, water $7,500.

That all goes to new infrastructure.

That does not go in our operating

budget.

So, um that is critical. We're getting

ready to do a new rate analysis, a third

party company called Rift Telus,

national company that does water

studies, um to look at your rates, your

future debt structures and things like

that and and decide where you need to be

today, where you need to be five or 10

years down the road because we don't

board I know doesn't want to come back

and say we got to do a% increase. you

know, it'd be better to do it two or

three when you need to, not wait till

that year you have to do something.

So, this is a little bit of a map. I got

three maps. So, this one really shows

the east side trunk sewer. Um, if you

can make it out, there's a little green

line on there. Goes along the creek. So,

that extends from uh US42 to State Route

142. Um it will serve a lot of the new

development out there. Johnson's Creek

area. Buddy Wilson's got a development

coming in. Um so this one we we uh

that's been in place. If you can see

there's a pump station on the lower

right up there. And key to this pump

station is we can send that flow either

to London or we can send it up to the

new regional wastewater plant. And we

designed that to make sure we don't over

capacity this plant here in London

because we have the room up there. It

gives us options and as an operator I

can tell you you always want options. Um

so this one and we'll talk a little bit

more about east side trunks here in a

minute. And we also looked at this. We

also looked at how we're going to serve

all the way up to Simpson Road. That's

in our service area. the whole county is

we want to make sure whatever we do the

seaside trunks are can also serve or

help serve all that area Simpson road

and on the other side of the railroad

tracks probably be industrial

development on that side.

So this is a wide wide aerial view of

our sanitary um planes we have today. We

have the 161 corridor um that is part of

the US42 force main project which is the

purple line um there. Um and then we get

down to the London area and we have a um

sewer line running across US 40 from 56

to 42. Um that line will help us take

out

sewer district 2 plant that serves Chall

Lake area. Uh we just put in sanitary

sewer in Somerford area. It was a

lowinccome project is 100% funed by

grand funs. So that was a that was big

for us. And eventually we'll go up um

state route um 38 and tie a lot of those

homes that are on 38 that have no saner

service.

water kind of follows the same path, you

know, more or less. You get started on

161. We have that water line. That

project will actually begin probably the

next two months. It's been approved by

our board. Uh funding is in place um

ready to go on that to 161 corridor.

That is um

um and part of that project phase two

will be to install a um water tower out

there. It's a 2 million gallon water

tower that we need for that area. Um

there's a little yellow line that goes

up 42. There's industrial park in Plain

City, 550 acre development there that we

are going to serve. Um again, the purple

line on 42 when we uh acquired easements

along that corridor, we got 30 30 foot

easements. We did that to put a water

line in.

We don't plan on doing the water line at

the same time only because of cost but

eventually I think that will probably

interconnection that will need to be

done. Um the good thing about it is

believe it or not the water towers here

in London can actually serve water in

plain city. It's all downhill that way.

Um the black line we have to put that

system in in 2022. There's about eight

miles of water line from the prison that

runs up to 42 and 29. And then we have,

you know, um a project from 38 to

Somerford that is being ready to be

designed as we speak.

Um funding strategy.

So we've been we have actually acquired

and then the county's been helpful with

this. We've have about $15 million worth

of grants throughout our our district.

Some of it's in Plant City, some of the

county, but we've been able to really

been successful getting grants. They're

usually not big grants. They're a

million up to five million if it's a

department development grant. You know,

when you're talking, you know, $400

million, it'll take whatever we can get.

The big thing that we can do as a

regional organization is apply for and

receive 0% interest loans.

We have I think we have four of them

right now that are 0% loans. Um that is

tremendous help for our financial

structure. Um, again, regional cost

sharing. Um,

we we look at everything as the district

as a whole, and we'll kind of go over

that here in a second. Um, how we look

at it, but right now, that's how we will

probably structure most of these

projects.

And I think I got a couple examples here

hopefully.

So, first thing that I looked at was,

hey, let's look at the east side trunk

sewer. And we know the project cost.

It's $22 million. $22.3 million. The

interest loan interest right now that we

can acquire is 33.4%.

It's a 30-year loan. Your annual debt

payment on that will be $1.19 million.

So we say, hey, let's just go ahead and

carve that out and let's go to the city

of London and they can they can pay for

that. And that's the way it's set up

right now is all based on your rates. So

you have 4,000 customers. You divide

that out, it's $24.88 for every customer

every month to pay that debt.

If we would spread it out over the

entire district of 8,000 customers, it's

half that, you know, a little less 12

point $1244.

So that's one example how we we look at

it to share across our whole district,

not just say carve it out here, carve it

out here, carve it out there. Another

example that we look at, we talked about

this. We're going to build a 5 million

gallon day water plant here in London

and one up in the plane city area.

They're $60 million.

So, we looked at capacity fees. So, when

we looked at capacity fees, they're all

the same. Everybody pays the same. But

we're building about 500 homes a year in

Plane City. We've been averaging about

60 homes a year right now.

So those capacity fees total 1.3 million

for London area and 11 million in the

northern region on a three-year basis.

U we have a large industrial user up in

the plane city area that has verbally

committed to pay for half of the

infrastructure up there. So $30 million.

So then you take all that and what's the

loan going to be for these two plants?

One would be 58 million, the other one

18 million. Your payments are 3.1

million for London one, a million for

the north. So you are looking at, wow,

that's a lot of money. So you're looking

at $6248

for the London area or $15 for the

northern. But if you look at it

combined,

everything together, you're 34.78 for

every customer throughout Mid Ohio. So

that's kind of how we look at it. Um,

sometimes it's really kind of hard to

separate, you know, well, you're using

water London, you're using water plane

city. It's really, it's convoluted at

times.

Another question I know that we've been

asked is, hey, what's going on with the

east side trunk sewer? Um, originally,

City of London project started I don't

know how long ago. Um, so we inherited

that project. Um, transferred to the

district, went to the transfer

agreement. Um, we did the first bid in

December of 2024. The engineers estimate

was 14.75 million. The one and only bid

came in at 20 million

dollars. So, we were not allowed by law

to take that bid. It's got to be within

20% of the engineer's estimate. So, we

weren't even by law allowed to take that

bid. So, we believe with our engineer

Burgess Nipel that everybody was so

busy. The contractors were busy.

Everybody was so busy. That's why we

only have one bid. So we said, well,

let's let's take our time, go back and

reid it when we feel the time is right.

So during that time, we also said, well,

let's look and see, can we do it better?

Can we do it different? Can we do it

cheaper? Um, and we looked at three or

four, probably five, eight options. You

know, can we put the sewer here, pick up

more service area, can we put it here,

can we do it do it wherever? Um, so the

board decided, hey, we're going to keep

it in the original spot where where it

was originally designed, which was that

happened a while ago, that green line,

and rebid it here in February. And the

project is 22.3 million. That includes

engineering. So, it's not a lot of

difference when we did it back in 2024.

Um, it's 22. The engineering, I think,

is 1.6 million.

So, now we have that. Uh we have secured

all the easements. Uh we have submitted

the loan application to get the project

started. Um we hope to get the loan

award in May and so we hope to get out

there and start digging in June, July of

this year.

So yeah, alignment see already ahead.

So that's kind of it in a nutshell. I

mean, if you guys got any questions of

us,

>> I didn't get your name.

>> Oh, Tom Taylor.

>> Okay.

>> Mr. Taylor, what's your

>> uh director

to use that correct?

>> Yes.

>> Okay.

Was there a new well ever put in out

there?

Well,

>> there was a test well. Um, it was found

that there was ammonia in the well, but

very small amounts, so we could probably

develop that well. I think the cost on

that well was like $2 million.

Um, our concern really wasn't the well.

Um the real problem is

that that plan was completed in 2015.

So it's been sitting there for 10 years.

You right you you have a car hasn't ran

for 10 years. I wouldn't take it to

California. Um so when we started trying

to operate that plant, we found a lot of

a lot of issues that needed addressed

like a lot. Um there's 70 automatic

valves in that plant. 70. and they have

to all talk together to the control

system. Well, none of them was talking

to anything. So, I don't I can't tell

you what happened, but the end result is

it would take a lot of work to get that

thing back up and running. So, it's kind

of where it's a small plant. It's

designed for um 720,000 a day. Um we

need 5 million, you know, total. Um and

just the operational cost of it is kind

of what led us to that decision.

I have another question. Um, this

concerns fire hydro flushing in the

condos.

I was on I was president of the board. I

don't remember ever having problem with

that.

I'm not on the board anymore, but

hearing that you folks

come in and flush the hydrants. Is that

correct?

>> Yeah, that is on our water line. It's a

private water line.

>> Okay. So, that's the reason that it's

all too

>> Yeah. Yeah. We don't have an easement or

access.

>> Okay. What is there any way that could

be remedied?

>> I mean, they could the HOA could come

and request that to our board. Um, you

know, we we would have no idea how was

built, was it better, right? I mean,

there's a lot of things we would ask.

Um, but it could be a request.

>> Yeah,

>> I know there's a lot of concern about

it. I'll pass that on to

>> Thank you for taking the questions. I

appreciate that.

>> Thank you.

>> Trouble with the Derby Accord. I know

they're trying to get a new one on the

other side of the river and I know

there's a word about Plane City.

Great question.

We all know the Derby. Uh the Derby

Accord has really delayed the um Deer

Creek project. It took uh two years just

to get the facilities plan. It's called

the 208 plan where we got to go in and

do all these things. Uh we finally got

that done. Took a lot of work, took a

lot of effort. Um we we had stakeholder

meetings with the Darby Creek

Association many times. Um so we kind of

got past that that hurdle. Um what's

next unfortunately is they have a thing

called appendix 33 of the high water

quality standards which really

associates with the derby. Um doesn't

affect us directly. It's more about

setbacks and developments and you know

densities and all those things. However,

uh, appendix 33 gives the Ohio EPA the

ability to

pressure M Ohio to have local entities

adopt that appendix. So, that'd be Plane

City and Madison County be your two big

ones that would have to do that. Uh,

we've had meetings with IEPA county and

plain city. Um, I think we're making

headway on that, but um, I mean, there's

some resistance. I mean, obviously

developers want to, you know, they want

density, they want, you know, all that

stuff. Totally understand. When it comes

to the derby, you know, that that um

that document is is the go-to.

>> What's another question? Columbus,

Hillyard, and Dublin's all knocking on

the Madison County's door up that way.

Would that affect us at all or I don't

know if county has anything against that

or not.

U

>> we don't want to have to serve them.

>> Yeah, I I know the county has concerns.

We meet with the county uh every other

week. They have concerns up there. We

have our 208 plan basically says, "Hey,

middle Ohio has the right and authority

to serve their area, right?" Which is

great. That's a great starting point.

But if double would come in and annex

property into our area, they can serve

that.

>> So that's that's the the arms race, what

we kind of call a lot of that.

>> Sorry.

>> Very. Yeah. And even the 161, there's a

their committee up there that includes

county, Madison County, Union County,

Mary'sville, everybody in that corridor

because everyone's kind of um wants

control of 161

>> and then you got to worry about the

Derby Accord on top of that. So, we're

at the table. Um our position is, you

know, we have the service area. It took

us a lot of money and time to get that

and we probably will never give that up.

>> Okay. Thanks. Appreciate it. Yep.

>> And it affects all of us. I'm just

interested.

>> Yeah. It's it's a puzzle.

>> Okay. Thank you.

>> It's been a big puzzle.

>> Yeah.

>> I I have a couple questions. So, I

believe an email was forwarded to you.

Um and you've answered some of those

questions, especially about that the

trunk line and the cost of that. Uh, one

of the questions, there's a gentleman

sitting behind you that he wanted to ask

the question that it sounded like

initially there was going to be a north

and a south

a north and a south district and and it

sounded like the the financing or the

funding for those projects would be

designated to the north for plane city

and the south for us. But now it sounds

like this is all combined thing

regardless. Is that true?

>> Well, that's kind of what our

recommendation is from staff. U we are

going to do the um rate study repellas

to look at that. Um but again there's a

lot of there's just a lot of

intertwining like how do we know what

goes here and what goes to that

direction. When I looked at the $465

million that was in the presentation um

it was pretty well split between plane

city and London. It was not quite 5050

but it was closer than what a lot of

people would think.

Um,

when we talk about capacity, so before

we joined Mid Ohio, there was the

discussion there was going to be the

plant that was built out on Shag Bark

Farm. There was a lot of push back and

at one point during council it was

suggested by Mayor Clawer that they

would just ask to bring that sewer down

to us and and he really was way off on

what he thought may be the numbers

because when you guys did uh that

research that $200 million was a big

number. Um so we we know that wasn't

going to happen but we still had

capacity at that point. Um and that's at

the plant level. You're telling me that

the lines are awful small. Can our lines

handle the development that's about to

happen here, especially on East High

Street and out on Betty Wilson Road,

which is a a condo group, those about

500 homes there. Can our lines handle

that capacity? And if they can't, will

do you stop that? So, right now the the

Amherst pump station is, you guys know

where that is. It's right there on 42.

We looked at the capacity of that. And

then there's a north northeast northwest

trunk sewer that runs through where

Madison Reserve is being developed. So

we looked at capacity of those two

items. That's that's really what we

ought to look at today. And we know we

have about a,44

units available which means that could

be 1,044 homes. It could be a thousand

homes and 44

units of commercial development. But

that's kind of where we're at. That kind

of give you an idea. Now, the problem is

the East Trunk sewer is really a

three-phase project. This is phase one.

Phase two was some more work inside the

the the city. Last was to go from the

Sharp Avenue area and increase the size

of that trunk sewer because we're

building the the east side trunk sewer

that lift station that can take it up to

Deer Creek. We won't have to do that.

So, that's a change from the original

plan because it was all going to come

south and tie in and go to our plant.

So, now you're going to run that north.

So, that's that's new information.

>> Um,

when I when I went to your board

meeting, one of my big concerns was the

the lack of communication to the

residents. And I still think that was an

issue. Um, first of all, I want to thank

you for coming tonight. I really wish we

would have had this conversation a year

ago after we joined and we could get an

update and I really hope somebody comes

back on at least on an annual basis if

not quarterly to just tell us what's

going on because we don't know and uh I

really thank you for for coming out. I

understand you're retiring soon. So I I

that's a shame because I know that you

really know what's going on. Um but I

just want to know has there been any

more steps taken towards the

communication and trying to fix that?

Yeah. So, first we really are pushing

people to sign up on our website.

>> And the reason why um you get an alert

or email. So, we have a water mane break

and I'm on there so I know everything

that goes on. But, um you'll get an

alert say there's a water main break on

each high street and it will try to tell

you estimated time for repair. You know,

that's an estimate. Let's say it's three

hours. And then after that, you'll get

an email or text saying, "Hey, the work

is done." uh oil advisory, you know,

maybe or u start using the water, you're

good to go. So, that's we also have the

um the one call, I think it is, that u

we have on our building system. Um the

problem with that is water breaks always

happen at 3:00 in the morning, it seems

like. So, we don't have access to our

CND crew doesn't have access to that.

Um, now when our billing people come in,

they can do that, but hopefully that

repairs already been made and we're out

of that that area. We're really trying

to push people for to our website. And

if it's complicated, it's been a while

since I signed up on it. If it's

complicated, we need to fix that. I

don't want it to be complicated. I want

it to be pretty simple. Name, email,

telephone number if you want to give it.

And then every time we do, it's just

it's um districtwide.

The other improvements to that were

posting more through in sta in-house

staff through social media and then

creating the banners for the website if

there is a water main break if there is

an issue. So if you are feeling like the

community is feeling something isn't

going on they can immediately go to the

website and they'll see a banner

flashing that there is an issue if they

have not signed up for the alerts.

>> Is that also how somebody would let you

know that they think there's an issue?

How does how does someone notify you if

they have an issue?

>> So, we have a 24-hour call center 247.

Uh it's emergency number is what we call

it. They call call that number and what

happens then is the call center does a

work order. That work order goes out to

all our CD people. So, like you have a

main break here that's they call they do

it and then that's that takes care of

it. And usually um we have a brand new

system. So, I'm not as familiar as the

old one, but you would receive an email

uh or I think it was an email. If you

called in, you would say you get an

email saying, "Hey, we're on it. You

know, we're at the site. You know, you

do get kind of updated when you would

call in." That was really really

critical out. We had individual grinder

pumps and um that was very helpful at

that point. I can personally say I had a

grinder pump go out during the blast

rainstorm and I used that system and

then I got I got email alerted that

there they were acknowledging and

somebody would be out.

>> I could ask a lot more but I'm going to

stop with that for the tonight. Thank

you for coming tonight.

>> Thanks.

>> I just had one more comment. We used to

get such a I live on the east side of

town and in the fall and sometimes when

the wind changed directions the sewer

plant was terrible because but past year

or so it had I don't know if you're

doing something new or keep it up.

>> Well, not to get

>> you should Paul would probably come

along you could open your windows and

all of a sudden you have to run and

close them.

>> Just real quick. So you know that thing

looks like an egg.

>> Yeah. that does all our sludge digestion

and you high temperatures and all that

stuff. So we it was out of service for

probably three months last summerish. Um

we only have one unit which is kind of

unusual. You usually have a backup. Um

so then we had to land apply we actually

took a lot to the landfill. You know we

can't meet certain criteria. We can't

put on the land we have to landfill it.

So that's probably why it was worse last

summer.

>> Very appreciative of it. Anyway, thank

you. Keep it up. Thank you. Thanks.

>> All right. Well, I got just one or two

for you, but yeah. Uh, thank you again

very much for coming on out and good to

talk. Uh, one way probably try not to,

but he does do well. If you see water

just running out of the street, sending

him an email. He's dealt with me before

there. And thank you very much. Um, so

yeah, the big one was the new

development coming out towards 40, the

industrial that's out there, the 3,500

homes and possible constraints it might

put on London. Uh, it does sound like

that is approved and housing and items

that are coming our way then already or

how do you see those projects right now?

So if you you're talking about the one

by our wastewater plant that we're

building. I mean that's one of them.

>> Yeah.

>> Out across from Farm Science Review that

type of

>> Oh

>> area industrial there and right outside

of London is what I'm talking about.

Nothing within London on this one. It

was

>> Yeah. So, you know, um I think the only

thing that's been approved by council is

probably Madison Reserve, Johnson's

Creek phase two, thing London and

Landing's done. Yeah, we're we're fine

with that. Um you start getting out um

to a big industrial development. I mean,

that would be that would be a concern.

We have to look at that. We we can't

>> That was my main thing was actually a

comment of yours that said,

>> "Yeah,

>> this 3,500 homes that are approved, it

has brought up a concern for London's

water capacity."

>> And so that's the ones I'm talking

about. Nothing that we've already the

1,600 we already have set and ready

going.

>> That's off a U developers take down

schedule.

>> So we get that because we have to plan,

right? So we know, man, we got to do

something because these are coming. It

takes three to four years to build a

plant. That's why we're starting now to

>> 10 years. That's kind of what I'm seeing

is, you know, hey, 10 years though, that

means we're going to see houses all the

way out to the truck stop.

>> Mhm.

>> We're going to see industrial complexes

across from farm science review there.

That field will be gone. And so that's

the big part where, you know, having mid

Ohio that is controlling this. It's a

big part where I know we talked and it

was, hey, we are interested in this

development. And I'll say as we kind of

discussed all of this, I didn't see very

many friendly faces going, "Yes,

we like our fields and everything else."

And so this is kind of a tough fact to

hear that, hey, maybe 10 more years it

might be going. You don't really think,

hey, that's not very long, but even just

for myself, it's, hey, I'm getting back

into coaching this year, and it was 11

years ago that, hey, I'd got myself out

of it. And so still feels like

yesterday. you know, we're going to get

to that point where where' this come

from all of a sudden and kind of

watching that, but at the same time kind

of is that something we should be

getting ready for then? It sounds like

>> Oh, we're already Yeah, we're already

doing that.

>> So, it's um because we we believe even

even the Plain City area water plant, we

don't think that's going to be ready

till 2029, early 2029. Actually, the

wastewater plant mid 2028. So, you know,

and we tell every developer that we

can't do anything till then, you know,

because we can't we can't um tax our

especially our water system anymore than

what it is, right?

>> And we are concerned about the peak

days, daily flows when it's, you know,

April, that's not a big deal. Our daily

average is probably at 1.6 million a

day. When those peak days, I mean, it'll

go up to three million. You know, plain

C is even worse because the developers

up there tell the new homeowners, you

guys got to water that sod 247 and our

our usage just goes through the roof up

there.

>> And that was uh another part that kind

of popped up. Thank you very much for

the 37 breaks. That was has kind of been

a curiosity with seeing that. Uh do you

have any numbers on how it had maybe

looked since 21, 22, 23? because I

hadn't heard quite that many, but it was

when we put in the $500,000 uh pipe for

adjusting the pressure from the Madison

County water coming in. You know, that

was supposed to help relieve that issue,

but once we kind of opened it on up

instead of an emergency issue kind of

time, it seems we've seen a lot more of

those breaks. Do we think any of that's

contributed to that pressure? There's a

pressure reducing valve that is at every

um interconnection. There's a meter

there and some other things, but we dial

that pressure in. We can do it. I can do

it from my phone right now if we wanted

to. We know that um our towers at the

prison sets way higher than London. So,

we can't just like just put it out there

and it probably blow

>> you know you know people off, you know.

So, so we have pressure reducing valves.

We actually have one too from the prison

that goes across 40 and we have one

right by Vex seed. Um our pressure will

reach 80 PSI right there because it's

all downhill. So we have a pressure

reducing valve there. So when it gets to

our tower on uh 42 it's where we want it

to be because yeah that was kind of a

big part of it didn't seem we were

having this many infrastructure issues

until we really tapped that into us and

started using as a main source. But uh

that was another kind of part with the

just dues and kind of fees on how we're

going to do this. Will London have any

kind of credit towards our rates being

increased for the prior $13.5 million

that we did approve in 2023

for that project for the storm sewer

line or sewer trunk line on that one?

>> Yeah, I mean I don't have an answer for

that one. I mean that's a lot of that is

going towards that what what those user

in rates have been paying for are going

towards the 22 million even though it

was originally quoted at the 14 million.

So that is still going towards it and

then we're using our other um investment

strategies so that we can recoup that

other for the $22 million and as well as

capacity fees from development. Was

there any kind of answer on why it was

closer to around 20 million in 24? I

think you said you had it checked out

instead of the projected 13.5 million

that we had told us.

>> I think because we only had one

contractor, you know, to be honest, our

belief is they're pipe people, right?

You So, we have put pipe in the ground

and we had a lift station build. Well,

they were pipe people. They're not

experienced in building the I mean, it's

a massive lift station, you you know,

it's 150 horsepower pumps in there,

right? So, we believe they probably

showed up at the bid, right? Didn't see

anybody else there and we just write

down, you know, whatever. Not saying

that happened, but, you know, it it was

it was surprising to us. And then we

come back to this one. So, the numbers

are about the same, which is good to

see, but we had a lot more action on

this one, too. I think we had seven or

eight pipe companies. Um the actual

contractor that got the bid for the list

station is our contractor on our Deer

Creek water wastewater plant. So that

helped lower that price a little bit. I

think that was 7.3 million just for

that.

>> Would you be able to send over the 2024

bid possibly? Am I able to ask or

request that just to see kind of who?

>> It won't take much.

>> Okay.

>> Yeah.

>> And so yeah, looking into those kind of

seeing, hey, what are we paying for?

Because if we're causing a water

shortage by the expansions and additions

that middle house kind of putting out

there, you know, even for the other

treatment plant that we had with the

chemicals for the ammonia, I know we had

a proof 750,000 for that guy back then.

Also, it was part of that whole large

chunk that we increased everyone's rates

for. And so to kind of hear, hey, we

might have issues with water supply

while this project hasn't gotten going.

It's interesting to hear the, hey, it

was out of date now that facility was an

old facility. I know we barely even

talked about joining mid Ohio until I

had gone through our sewer treatment

plans and seen that, hey, we were at 50%

capacity, so we could double our sizing

money. But that's where they were there

was a lot of confusion because, hey, how

are you having storm sewer flooding? But

the two are not related. And so that's

where people think, well, I don't know

if we have capacity. We had plenty of

capacity.

>> The plant, we had actually put a brand

new holding tank, I think, over at the

Chrisman Avenue one we were getting

ready to build also there. Yep. And so

we had done that. We had 700,000 for the

new sledge uh press that you guys have

now. that hey glad it's helping

operations but yeah that was more items

that was supposed to be covered by our

BPU but had council actually take a load

out for at the time of and so there's a

lot of things that it's questionable

when you say hey you're raising our

rates for facilities that are possibly

outdated or not quite the best when

they're not bad

you know I'll say that much

>> facilities

>> as far as us covering London you know we

had most of our stuff going. I felt kind

of well besides the storm sewer. That

was one. But the biggest piece is this

sewer trunk line. The one that is my

biggest concern for the sewer lines. You

said 15 inch. Would that be the one

coming down through East High Street?

>> Yeah. It comes from the Sharp Avenue and

comes directly into the wastewater

treatment plant.

>> And that's the one where we are having

numerous amounts of people with flooded

basements. that's not storm sewer and to

say that hey we're trying to now figure

this out helping the other developments

that was an issue that hey we are

developing it we are around more 90 to

100 houses a year that we're actually

building and so having that added on for

the last 2 three years now without a

project that we were told in December of

2023 would start in April or March it's

upsetting to see that hey this project

could be done these people would be

saving house issues. They'd be having

actual correct facilities and not being

able to flush toilet paper is an issue.

And so having these things, but hearing

that yeah, it's a 15inch pipe that we're

sending all the through. I'd say that

kind of shows an issue there or that I

So

>> yeah, you know, I I is difficult. You

know, um storm water should be taken

care of by storm sewers.

>> Oh, we're getting by sanitary.

>> That's good.

>> Um and you know, it's it, you know, we

we have a lot of work ahead of us. So,

when you think about the system, it

could be impacted by something five

streets away, you know, and just once it

gets to that one point, it's just

the other thing too as far as

development.

>> Our goal is to our duty is they'll come

to us and say, "Hey, can you ser

the number? Can you serve this data

center? Whatever it might be, our job is

to say

even in plain city

background when they were out of state

capacity, they would EPA.

Um so the EPA immediately approved me to

install

one show around that

that's difficult very difficult you

never want to get in the same position

with the city work the county city to

make sure that constantly

is we Look at a new wastewater plant,

water plant. First thing we do plan

what is your expectation?

How many

that's what we do and all projections I

get that that's the best we have

our rates on

construction cost so we have a

performance for both water and waste

water we constantly

update that again probably the next two

months

yeah we constantly have to

you're looking at the death.

>> Well, yeah. And just kind of hopefully

we're recognizing that. That's my

biggest thing for our representatives

between both of us is, you know,

actually having someone that's saying,

you know, London has increased our rates

specifically for these projects already,

and now we're coming back and saying,

hey, we need more money. And now it's

not even a chunk of that money. It's hey

that whole project is coming back to us

again in some way or another.

>> You might need that.

>> Correct. not come back.

>> Do you think it's a good possibility

though for

>> as we look at our consulting group?

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you very

>> Thank you for coming out tonight

>> on to

Audience concerns. We have Doug Pile.

So, you can