Village Council— Morris Bean seeks sewer tie-in
- Published: June 23, 2016
At Village Council’s June 6 meeting, Council members heard a request from Morris Bean leaders to permit that company to connect to the Village sewer system.
“We encourage the Village to embrace this request as one that’s good for the environment and for the community,” Morris Bean spokesman Bill Magro said.
The topic of connecting the longtime local company to the Village sewer system has been considered for more than 20 years, according to Magro, who stated, “The wheels of government move slowly.” And the concerns raised two decades ago have only become more timely.
“The Morris Bean system continues to age. Something needs to be done,” he said.
Magro also stated that Morris Bean would fund the cost of the change and there would be no financial expense to the Village. Under a 2010 agreement between the company and the Village, only the company’s sanitary waste, and not its industrial waste, as well as a limited amount of a rinse agent, would be treated by the Village’s wastewater treatment plant.
Council members appeared to be in agreement with the request, and asked that Village Manager Patti Bates draw up legislation for the change. Council will hear the legislation’s first reading at its next meeting, Monday, June 20.
The possibility of connecting Morris Bean to the Village sanitary sewer first emerged in the 1990s, when the Ohio EPA recommended that Morris Bean either connect to the Village or upgrade is own sewage treatment system due to the company’s potential as a contamination source to the Village well field just south of the facility. The Morris Bean treatment system, established in the late 1960s, was a system common at that time, according to late Village engineering consultant John Eastman in a 2011 News story, but did not meet updated U.S. EPA standards and was not operating efficiently. Morris Bean is within the five-year travel time of the Village well field, and the company was identified as a potential source of well field contamination in the Village Wellhead Protection Plan.
While the Village normally does not extend utilities beyond Village limits, an exception was made for Morris Bean in a 2005 Council resolution due to the threat of contamination to Village water.
According to Village Manager Patti Bates this week, a combination of factors contributed to the delay in moving ahead with the project, including issues between the two entities that needed to be worked out, and the turnover in Village managers in recent years.
An aluminum casting foundry with about 100 employees currently, Morris Bean has operated in its current Hyde Road facility since 1949. It was started in 1946 by Morris and Xarifa Bean at what was originally the Antioch Art Foundry, and is now the Antioch College theater building. The company reached its peak in the 1970s with about 700 employees, and it was once the county’s largest employer, according to the 2011 News article.
In other Council June 6 business:
• Council unanimously approved the second reading of an ordinance that will allow the placement of a new stop sign on Livermore and South College streets, near the Wellness Center.
• Council approved the first reading of two ordinances that modify the Village zoning code regarding signage.
• Council met in executive session regarding potential litigation.
Council’s next regular meeting will take place Monday, June 20, in Council chambers.
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