Talk Turns to Flooding at Avon City Council

Avon City Council decided to hold a special meeting of legal and service committees after about a dozen Avon homes ended up with raw sewage in their basements during Monday's flooding.

Avon brought the matter before council during Monday's meeting. The special meeting will be at 6:15 p.m. March 7 in council chambers.

Jerry Plas, director of , said the rain and flood water left no room in the French Creek Interceptor, which runs from North Ridgeville along French Creek to North Ridgeville's French Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.

"It was something I've never seen in 14 years here," he said.

City engineer Robert Knopf said that raw sewage was about two feet below manhole covers in spots.

The affected homes were in or near the Northgate and Stonebridge developments, Knopf said. Smith said at least one of the homes had three feet of sewage in their basement.

About 75 percent of the city of Avon is also on the French Creek Interceptor, said Knopf.

"We pay $350,000 a year (to North Ridgeville) for using that interceptor, and we get no answers," Smith said. "We have to do something. We can't have our residents with raw sewage in their basements."

Developer Gary Smitek, attending the council meeting, told Smith and council members it was only going to get worse.

"North Ridgeville's building 300 new houses a year, all of them coming into that sewer system," he said. "Mercy's new facility (in Avon) will be on it."

One concern, Smith said, was how this would affect future development in Avon if the current sewer situation does not change.

"How do we bring people into Avon when this could happen?" he asked.