Genoa: Annexation utility policy in effect

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The Village of Genoa is poised to grow.
Village council has unanimously approved an ordinance changing the village’s annexation policy for properties outside the village limits receiving its utility services.
The area affected by the new policy is located in Clay Township.
The ordinance requires utility customers on contiguous properties south of State Rt. 51 to sign an annexation agreement with the village or face termination of utility services.
Thomas Bergman, village administrator, said two businesses, Gordon Lumber and Henry W. Bergman, Inc., and six residences will be impacted by the change.
“It is my understanding that everyone contacted by the village solicitor has already responded that they will annex,” Bergman said in an email message. “Both businesses, Gordon Lumber and Henry W. Bergman, Inc., were in the village 30 years ago but relocated outside while remaining on village residents’ utilities. Henry W. Bergman, Inc. …is located on a street maintained by the village.
“All of the houses on Ashery Drive are on Genoa electricity, sewer, and most are on water. The village plows and maintains Ashery Drive despite it not being in the village at this time. The (Clay Township) trustees have told us a few times to annex Ashery Drive, which is expected to happen in the coming months.”
One residence along State Rt. 163 has been receiving village water for decades, Bergman said, and a house on 10th Street has been receiving Genoa water, sewer, and electric service.
“This subdivision was built by my grandfather and it is my understanding that the man who farmed his ground 50 plus years ago lived in that house and it was intentionally left unannexed as a favor. Seventy years later, that situation is being corrected,” he said.
The village and Clay Township have a memorandum of understanding to share property tax revenues from property annexed to the village. Under the agreement, Genoa receives 55 percent and the township receives 45 percent.
The agreement was renewed in 2017 and is scheduled to expire in 2037.
In March, village council heard the first reading of three ordinances that established 50 percent surcharges on water and sewer customers in Clay and Allen townships. Two ordinances were later voted down and the third was tabled, pending the result of an economic development study conducted by Ottawa and Lucas counties, City of Toledo, and the Northwestern Water and Sewer District.
The study is examining the feasibility of a regional water and wastewater management system that could service a large scale industrial area.
The village ordinance approved last month states the right of municipalities to require annexation agreements for the continuation of utility services was confirmed in a 2006 Ohio Supreme Court case in which the City of Perrysburg was a party.