Tuesday, April 14th, 2015
Fire department upgrade may lower Coldwater insurance rates
By Doug Drexler
COLDWATER - Improvements to the village fire department may lower insurance premiums for residents and businesses, according to information announced at Monday's council meeting.
Insurance Services Office Inc., which grades fire departments and reports the findings to insurance companies, recently upgraded Coldwater's rating due to equipment and training improvements.
The fire department upgraded two of its three pumpers from a capacity of 1,000 gallons per minute to 1,500 gallons per minute, fire chief Brent Forsthoefel said at the council meeting. The third pumper was not upgraded but is scheduled to be replaced in 2019, he said.
The department also has increased its available water sources with pond owners making dry hydrants available, he said. Additional training by department personnel and more automatic mutual aid agreements with neighboring departments also helped improve the department's ratings, he said.
Improvements to the town's water system helped boost the rating within the village from a 5 to a 4, the lower number showing an upgrade.
About 90 percent of Butler Township's rating went from a 9 to a 6, Forsthoefel said. The score for the remaining 10 percent did not improve because the area lies more than 10 miles from a fire station. Building a new fire station would be about the only way to improve those ratings and that would be impractical, he said.
Property owners are urged to contact their insurance agents to see if they can now obtain a better rate, Forsthoefel said. Insurance costs often depend on the ratings, which are updated every 10 years, he said.
Council also gave final approval to an increase in trash collection rates. The three-year contract extension with Klenke's Trash Service includes a rate increase from $1.33 per trash bag to $1.36 starting June 1, to $1.42 one year later and to $1.48 the following year. Recycling bags will increase from the current 90 cents each to 93 cents in June, 96 cents in June 2016 and $1 in June 2017. Yard waste bags will increase from $1.47 to $1.52 in June 2016 and to $1.57 in June 2017.
The village will continue to collect an additional 20 cents on each trash and lawn waste bag, Thomas said.
In other business, council,
• reminded residents who own cisterns of an environmental committee meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday to discuss new Ohio Environmental Protection Agency rules.
OEPA has instructed Coldwater officials to take steps to prevent cistern water from entering the village water system. Cistern owners need to add a back flow prevention device or separate their water lines, village administrator/engineer Eric Thomas said.
OEPA mandates that back flow devices be inspected annually, he said. If residents choose to install the devices, a certified village employee could inspect the back flow preventers at no charge. An inspection normally costs owners about $50, he added.
About 180-200 of the village's 1,900 water customers have cisterns, committee chairman Rich Branch said. Committee members want to hear from those customers before deciding whether to encourage back flow regulators and train an inspector, he said.
• learned the village will advertise for a new tax administrator. Thomas said the position likely will be changed from full-time to part-time with more hours scheduled during tax season.
• held a 28-minute executive session to discuss land and personnel issues but took no action.
