Huber Heights plans to spend $4M fixing water mains in 2022

The city is still evaluating whether to pay cash for the project, borrow the money or some combination to replace the infrastructure, said interim Huber Heights city manager Bryan Chodkowski.

Council is considering a change in the way the water and sewer line fixes are billed to residents to partly fund the infrastructure project.

Council said residents would not see an overall increase, but the amount for sewers would decrease while the water bills would increase.

“Commercial and residential users shouldn’t see any significant changes in the total,” Chodkowski said.

The change is so the money goes to a fund where it is needed.

Chodkowski said council was expected to approve the rate change in February and it would go into effect in April.

City engineer Russ Bergman told city council at a work session on Dec. 6 the breaks in water mains are likely due to soil erosion, but he said the breaks also started to become more frequent after the city finished installing a water softening system in May 2020.

“Probably the soil is causing corrosion, and it doesn’t corrode the whole pipe, it just sometimes pinpoints an area,” Bergman said.

Bergman said another expert told him the softer water moving through the pipes may have dislodged buildup in the pipes, corroding the pipes from the inside and contributing to the water main breaks.

Bergman said the company the city worked with on the water softener project is now working to understand whether the water softener system played a role in the breaks.

Bergman said his department wanted to complete an assessment of the water main breaks before awarding the contract. The assessment would cost about $100,000 and is included in the budget.

Councilmen Richard Shaw and Glenn Otto pushed for the project to be included in the 2022 budget. Councilman Mark Campbell suggested $4 million be appropriated and city employees find a way to fund the project.

“I’m going to say that the reason they’re breaking just doesn’t matter,” Otto said. “If they’re broke, they’re broke. They have to be fixed.”