After hearing from landfill neighbors that the county's sewer plan stinks, the county commissioners have backed down on the proposed $1.5 million sewer project.
The commissioners agreed this morning that none of the neighbors will have to foot the bill for the line to the county landfill.
"In my opinion, the idea of having citizens pay for this sewer line is off the table," Wood County Commissioner Jim Carter said this morning.
Though no official vote was taken, the commissioners agreed unanimously.
"There will be, under no circumstances whatsoever, any public role in this line," Commissioner Tim Brown said.
"In this economy with people going from month to month not knowing if they will have a job," the timing is all wrong for asking citizens to chip in for a line they don't need, Brown said.
The decision was good news to neighbors of the proposed sewer, who would have been forced to tap into the line.
"I feel a little bit of relief, cautious relief," said Rev. Dan Vellinga, of Plain Congregational Church, which also would have had to tap into the sewer.
 

"I'm happy," said Karl Hinesman, one of 40 homeowners who would have been forced to hook into the system for an estimated $15,500 each.
"Everyone let them know their feelings at the church the other night," he said of the Poe Road neighbors who gathered last week at the church to voice their objections to the project.
"The commissioners don't have the money for this. The landfill doesn't have the money for this. What makes you think we do?" Hinesman asked during that meeting.
The homes are currently served by septic systems, all of which are functioning properly. But Wood County Health Department regulations require that any home within 400 feet of a sewer line must hook into the system. Residents expressed frustration that they may be forced to pay for a system they don't need.
But the landfill still needs the sewer line, according to the commissioners, who asked that the Northwestern Water and Sewer District now look into designing a private line to the landfill. Rather than the originally proposed six-inch line, a four-inch line could possibly be used, according to Tom Stalter, of Poggemeyer Design Group. That should lower the overall cost of the project.
County officials have explained that they can no longer afford to truck leachate from the landfill to Bowling Green's wastewater plant. Ken Rieman, director of the county solid waste management district, said the amount of leachate is growing, the amount charged by Bowling Green to treat the waste has increased, and the cost of trucking has jumped. An estimated 4.3 million gallons of leachate will be trucked to BG this year, costing up to $166,000.
"We remain stewards of the landfill and are obligated to find a solution," Brown said.
But that solution will have to be different than originally planned.
As of last week, the county had agreed to pick up 54 percent of the sewer line cost - estimated at $882,000 - a figure based on the predicted usage by the landfill. That left the 40 Poe Road homeowners paying the rest - an estimated $622,000, or $15,500 per household. Each residence would also have had to pay approximately $40 in monthly sewer charges.
In January, the commissioners discussed picking up a much greater portion of the sewer line cost. Wood County Administrator Andrew Kalmar reported that the commissioners had decided it wasn't fair to make the residents pay for a system they don't need. At that time, it was discussed that the homeowners would only need to pick up about $1,500 each - the cost of running the lines from their houses to the pumps, and the cost for disposing of the current septic systems. However, while the commissioners discussed this option, they never formally voted on it.
Though the commissioners took no vote this morning on proceeding with a private line, they said that the public line is no longer an option.
And while that is pleasing now to neighbors, it could be a problem in the future if the residents are at some time ordered to hook into a sewer system due to leaking septic tanks.
"That's the problem," Jerry Greiner, director of the water and sewer district, said about a possible negative with the private line.