Hinckley Township Trustees decide to not move forward with public water in town center after survey results

HINCKLEY TWP. — The Hinckley Township Trustees decided to not move forward with bringing public water to town center during Wednesday's meeting after less than 18 percent of respondents said they were interested in pursuing it. The township sent out 154 letters for the affected parcels, which are around the intersection of Center and Ridge roads, Trustee Monique Ascherl said during the June 6 meeting. The letters determined if the people who own the affected parcels are interested in having county water rather than well water, and it explained that the property owners would be responsible for the associated cost of the project. The people who were sent a letter had from April 28 to May 12 to respond. There were 27 letters sent back, which indicated that the parcel owner was interested in bringing public water to the town center, she said. Out of the 27 affirmative responses, 15 of those letters came from three people because they own multiple parcels. The rest wrote back no, or no response was given. To bring a request to the Medina County commissioners to expand public water, 50 percent of the responses had to be affirmative, Trustee Melissa Augustine said during Wednesday's meeting. She asked if the parcels owned by the township should be considered a yes or a no response. Ascherl said the township should be considered a no response, and Chairman Jack Swedyk agreed. "If we responded affirmatively and somehow got above this magical number that they need it to be, that would be using taxpayer's dollars to do the water," Ascherl said. "I would say township properties are a no because this is only moving forward, the county has said, as an assessed project if there was an overwhelming response rate." Augustine also asked if another letter of interest should be sent out to those who did not respond because she said she spoke with property owners who did not get the chance to send back the letter in time. The situation is similar to when the township did not resend letters for the comprehensive plan survey to residents who missed it, Ascherl said. People can fill out a form of interest with the county for the project, rather than the township sending out another batch of letters. "My opinion is, we sent this out, we did what we said we were going to do, and we got results back that do not support moving forward on this," Swedyk said. "I have been adamant that I will not support any kind of a tax project. If they don't want to move forward as an assessed project, I think that's the end of the road here." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.