Sunday, April 02, 2000
City tries again to get homes water
Villa Hills says grant likelier now
BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
VILLA HILLS — Ruth Beil's River Road yard borders the Ohio River, but that water might as well be a million miles away.
In the year since water haulers quit making deliveries to a tiny pocket of Kenton County homes without public water, Mrs. Beil has had to give up her garden, limit how much laundry she does, and trade relaxing baths for short showers.
“I've got arthritis, and I miss being able to take a bath,” the 74-year-old wid ow said. “I would love to fill a tub up with hot water and get a good book and just lay back, but I can't do that.”
To get water, Mrs. Beil's children take turns filling a 250-gallon tank every two weeks at her son's home in Ludlow, and hauling it to her home. She then pays part of her son's water bill.
Nine neighboring households also procure water from various sources and take turns hauling it in.
On nearby Amsterdam Road, seven households fill their cisterns by running garden hoses 1,000 feet up a hillside to a service connection in the Prospect Point community. Homeowner Shelly Espich figures her family spent $500 to replace hoses that froze and broke last winter.
“If you've got a small cistern, you've got to go up the hill at least once a week,” said Amsterdam Road resident Daryl Laws, 52, who's been lobbying for public water for 20 years. “The winter time is the worst, when everything freezes. Then you need backup hoses, or you do without water.”
Relief may soon be on the way, however.
The city of Villa Hills is making its second attempt in a year to win a federal grant for a new waterline.
The project would include 10 homes on River Road (Ky. 8) and seven households on the lower portion of Amsterdam Road that don't have public water, said Richard Harrison, director of engineering and distribution for the Northern Kentucky Water Service District.
The new 8-inch main also would serve 24 homes in Bromley that are on small, unreliable waterlines maintained by residents.
To help pay for the $370,742 project, the city of Villa Hills is seeking a $278,117 Community Development Block Grant awarded through Kentucky. Kenton Fiscal Court and the city of Villa Hills also have been asked to contribute $10,000 each toward the project, and the residents of the low- to moderate-income area who don't get connection costs waived would pay $3,250 in tap-in fees.
Villa Hills also has offered to make a loan of about $69,000, which would be paid back through monthly fees from residents using the waterline, Mr. Harrison said.
The Northern Kentucky Water Service District will explain the grant at a public hearing at the Villa Hills City Building at 7 p.m. April 12.
“What's so unique about the area is that they don't have access to affordable hauling,” Mr. Harrison said.
The cost of hauling water to the homes first tripled — from $35 to $100 a load — before commercial haulers decided last spring that it was no longer economically feasible to continue serving the area, Mrs. Espich of Amsterdam Road said.
At least one elderly couple has moved because of their inability to get water, Mrs. Espich said. And in her household, the 33-year-old mother of four said it's a constant battle to make sure the children conserve water.
Unlike last year's unsuccessful grant application, this one includes underserved Bromley households, Mr. Harrison said.
“Increasing the number of households that benefit should strengthen our chances of being funded,” he said.
Besides helping the 41 households, the grant also will spur development in his city, said Villa Hills Councilman Mike Sadouskas.
“Up on top of the hill, we're just about built out,” Mr. Sadouskas said. “Any future development is going to have to take place along the river or on (the lower portion) of Amsterdam Road. If I'm a developer, and I know that water is already there, I'm more inclined to go in there.”
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