'A say in their destiny': Granville, Johnstown, Alexandria pursuing utility partnership

With the Southwest Licking Community Water and Sewer District expanding its service area into central Licking County by buying land in St. Albans Township — potentially dictating where future development will happen — local officials are banding together to ensure they have a say in what that development looks like.

Representatives for the townships of St. Albans, Liberty, Monroe and Granville, the city of Johnstown and villages of Alexandria and Granville are pursing a regional partnership for water and sewer service. While nothing official has been approved, discussions have been ongoing since last fall.

Water and sewer infrastructure drives development. If communities like Johnstown and others in western and central Licking County want to control developments in their areas, management of those assets is critical for long-term planning, acting Johnstown City Manager Sean Staneart said.

"We realize that we do not exist in a bubble, and partnerships are going to be, really, the key to creating an organized growth plan for the region of Licking County. We believe by creating these partnerships, we can not only support one another but be more efficient with the services that we are providing through economies of scale," Staneart said. "The overall goal is just to provide services that each area needs while managing growth and increase the quality of life for our residents in this area."

As more development is expected to follow Intel Corp. to Licking County, Staneart said Johnstown is in the "crosshairs of development pressures." Providing water and sewer, he said, gives each of the communities a way to control their own destiny.

Granville Village Manager Herb Koehler said this effort is a way to manage the growth each community faces so it aligns with the type of development each municipality and township wants to see.

"Granville is not seeking to grow through this at all as a village or to grow our municipal boundary," he said. "This is actually an alternative to that in a lot of ways, where we can service outside our village boundary without growing."

The proposal's first phase would use service agreements that — if agreed to by all entities — would allow Granville, Alexandria and Johnstown to provide water and sewer service to the unincorporated areas of Granville, St. Albans and Monroe townships.

"I feel like down the road this may provide a template for other municipalities facing some of the same challenges," Alexandria Mayor Jim Jasper said.

The conceptual plans lay out the following potential service areas:

• The village of Granville would provide water and sewer to Granville Township and water service to St. Albans Township.

• Alexandria's sewer plant would serve the majority of St. Albans Township.

• Johnstown would provide water and sewer to Monroe Township and the northwest corner of St. Albans Township.

When it comes to water capacity, Johnstown has 35% of its daily water capacity available, and Granville has 45% available. Of daily sewer capacity, Johnstown has 45% available, Granville has 60% and Alexandria has 62%, according to information provided by the working group.

Jim Lenner, a contracted administrator for St. Albans Township, said shortly after Licking County Commissioners approved extending the utility's service area in October 2022, that he, Koehler, Jasper, Staneart and other officials started researching how their entities could collaborate on water and sewer service.

"We wanted to work in conjunction with entities, and when we found out about the October 2022 agreement, that sent red flags up in the air for us, knowing that … (decisions) that are affecting the township were made without input from the township," Lenner said. "We wanted to make sure we uncovered any stone we could to make sure the township has a say in their destiny."

After determining creating their own water and sewer district was too time consuming to be a short-term solution, the group turned its focus toward using service agreements.

If the proposal is adopted, existing residents and businesses in Granville, St. Albans and Monroe townships would not be required to connect to water and sewer services, Koehler said.

Jasper added that there are still residents in Alexandria on wells who never tied into water service that Granville provides to its western neighbor.

But if a new retail business wants to locate in St. Albans Township — within an area that residents have designated for such a business — they could use Granville water and Alexandria sewer under the proposal.

Staneart said each community's comprehensive plan is guiding the proposal. St. Albans Township approved a comprehensive plan late last year, and Granville and Johnstown are in the process of finalizing updates on theirs.

"This is comprehensive plan driven, whether it be from the townships or from the respective cities that are providing the water and sewer, so the comprehensive plans and the development plans put in place by the residents are really going to drive where this water and sewer would be located," Staneart said. "It's not just us listening to a business that wants to locate in an area. It has to be consistent with the wishes and the desires of those residents through their respective comprehensive planning efforts."

A key aspect of the proposal is that all communities would collaborate and inform each other. If a developer came to Granville first about providing water to a new business in St. Albans Township, Koehler said he'd ensure they reach out to the township before proceeding.

"We're not splitting up a pie here that we're all going to take a share. That's not the point. That's what Southwest Licking does. That's not what we do," Koehler said.

While Koehler, Jasper and Staneart have informally updated their respective city and village council members, the next step is to present a memorandum of understanding formalizing the partnership to each council in late September. Lenner expects it will come before the St. Albans Township Trustees in late September or early October.

Staneart said there is still a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done before each community is ready to sign agreements.

"We don't want to go down that exercise if we don't have some type of document that states, 'Hey, we're all in this together here. We're willing to work together,'" he said. "It's helpful to have something in place like that."

Part of that includes determining fees, collecting more data and completing engineering work, Koehler and Staneart said.

If all communities approve the MOU, the group will take the plan to the Licking County Commissioners this fall. Koehler said the group previously shared its plans informally with Commissioners Tim Bubb and Duane Flowers.

"If the commissioners and the state are really looking at a regional solution, we think this could be the cornerstone of that to have a number of municipal service providers, a number of townships that are supported and can contribute to the solution," Koehler said. And I think in that way, not only do you have local control, each individual municipality or township also can ensure that the plan aligns with their own comprehensive plans, which is something that's sorely missing in the manner in which Southwest Licking (Community Water and Sewer District) has been growing."

mdevito@gannett.com

740-607-2175

Twitter: @MariaDeVito13

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Granville, Johnstown, Alexandria pursuing water, sewer partnership