T-L Photos/GAGE VOTA Shadyside resident and former water and sewage board member Sue Ferrelli expresses that she believes Shadyside Village Council should provide more information to residents about how much water they are using each month on their monthly water and sewage bill.

SHADYSIDE — For months residents have pleaded with Shadyside Village Council for more transparency, and on Monday members aimed to provide it.

Council held an open public forum and invited Senior Rural Community Development Specialist Trina Woodland to explain the recent water and sewage rate hike. In January 2024, council raised water and sewer rates, prompting an uproar from residents.

At the beginning of 2024, council voted to raise water rates by $3.38 per month for every 2,000 gallons consumed and sewer rates by $5.83 per month for 2,000 gallons. That brought the combined monthly rates from $35.92 to $45.13. Rates increased again on July 1 by the same amount for a total bill of $54.34 per month.

At last month’s meeting, resident and representative of the Rural Assistance Partnership Joseph Munjas addressed council.

“My thought is that this creates a bit of a conundrum because the village has to have higher rates to get the grants, but when you have higher rates the expenditures kind of stay normalized I guess I’ll call it,” he told council then. “You end up with a whole lot of cash in the bank account, and the problem is you got a lot of money in the bank account, which is never considered a problem, but we’ve billed the residents more than we needed to pay the bills.”

Village Administrator Erica Tamburin was not present at that previous meeting, but on Monday she said she believes Munjas’s statement is false.

“I would like to say that it was previously stated that Shadyside has a large amount of funds in its water department and I simply disagree with that,” Tamburin said. “The fund balance is $400,000, and any project that we are looking at would be into the millions.”

Woodland then informed those in attendance that the median household income for Shadyside is $52,264 per year. She added that for Shadyside to be eligible for funding from either the Ohio Water Development Authority or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, sewer rates should be calculated at 1.5% of the median household income and water rates should be calculated at 1.1% of the median household income on a minimum of 4,500 gallons of usage per month.

“Shadyside has done a great job raising rates in the last year, but rates are still a little low. The village should consider a small percentage rate increase yearly to avoid drastic increases in the future,” Woodland said.

Shadyside resident Bob Dorris addressed council, saying that he personally doesn’t have an issue with the recent rate increase but that he agrees with Woodland’s suggestion of raising the rates by a small amount each year instead of implementing a larger increase all at once.

Dorris then asked council members if they have a plan for the future. Tamburin informed him that the village does have a water tower project that the funds will be going toward.

“Our water tower was leaking, causing that foundation to crack and slightly leak. So they are redoing the water tower tank completely from the inside out, rebuilding the foundation that it’s on. So that is the $1.6 million project, and that’s where we’re starting,” Tamburin said.

She added that the rate increase will not only help the village afford the water tower project, but it will be able to start looking into the future and begin to formulate a five- or 10-year plan for the village.

Shadyside resident and former water and sewage board member Sue Ferrelli then spoke, saying her purpose for attending the meeting was to ensure the community received the transparency she believes it deserves. She added that she served on the board until it was disbanded in favor of the village hiring a village administrator.

Her issue with the water and sewage bills is the lack of transparency on the actual bill. She said it doesn’t have a breakdown of how much water was used per month, which makes it nearly impossible for residents to see what they are paying for.

“I just want to say one thing. I’m not a very smart person, but why is this so complicated?” Dorris asked. “Is there a program out there that can personalize each person’s bill? My electric bill’s that way, my cable bill’s that way, my gas bill’s that way. Why can’t we have a water bill in plain English for what we’re paying for?”

He added that he believes residents would be less frustrated with council if there was a breakdown of what they are paying for.

“I will say I’m paying my father’s water bill in St. Clairsville and it’s no different. He gets the same card in the mail with the same — no information. So I’m just asking if there is a program out there that can make this more personal,” he said.

Councilman Brandon Parr responded that he agrees there should be a better way to inform the community how the bills are being calculated.

Former council member Nick Ferrelli interrupted and said this issue has been occurring for as long as he can remember.

Councilman Mike Meintel said he had just done a quick Google search to see if a software like Dorris was requesting exists and found several. He added that council should do more research and come up with a plan to implement a better way to be more transparent with the residents.