Coshocton and West Lafayette mayors sign water agreement
The signing of the Coshocton and West Lafayette water agreement took place on April 25 at Coshocton City Hall with Coshocton City Mayor Steve Mercer, West Lafayette Village Mayor Steve Bordenkircher and members of both negotiating teams present. Pictured behind the mayors are Coshocton’s team – Dave McVay, utilities director, Roger Moore, councilman, Max Crown, safety service director, and Sherry Kirkpatrick, city auditor, and West Lafayette’s team – Craig Bordenkircher, Christie Maurer, and Ron Lusk, who all serve on village council. Josie Sellers | Beacon
COSHOCTON – The City of Coshocton and the Village of West Lafayette recently showed what government office can do for their communities when they work together.
The signing of the Coshocton and West Lafayette water agreement took place on April 25 at Coshocton City Hall with Coshocton City Mayor Steve Mercer, West Lafayette Village Mayor Steve Bordenkircher and members of both negotiating teams present.
“This truly is a historic time,” Mercer said. “I’ve always said we are too small to act independently of ourselves. The city may be the center of our county, but we all need each other.”
Both mayors were thankful for everyone who took part in the negotiations and were glad to see the agreement signed.
“This is great for West Lafayette,” Bordenkircher said. “We are going to get much needed improvements to our infrastructure and this will help with the growth of the village and the community. It’s important that we all work together. This wouldn’t have happened without efforts from both parties.”
He added that the village will have upgrades made to 13,000 feet of water lines and residents will receive cheaper, better quality water.
“They (residents) should see rates go down pretty significantly,” Bordenkircher said. “We were looking at needing about five million in updates to our water treatment plant and we only have about 880 residents to pass that on to. Instead of a 30 percent increase in rates they are going to see a 20 to 30 percent reduction.”
Work on the agreement has taken about a year and a half. Negotiations got under way once voters in West Lafayette approved the idea in the November 2018 election. An engineering firm for the project has been retained and the project should be bid out later this year.
“Hopefully the project will be under way next spring and the plan is for it to take less than a year,” Mercer said. “By the end of 2020 West Lafayette should have water from the city. This will be a major change for Coshocton. It shows how government entities can work together to regulate services and provide the best services for their customers.”
Category: Government
