Approximately 100 people attended the May 17 Public Meeting. Almost all of the attendees are residents of Lakewood. A few local businesses were also represented.

Mr. Novak welcomed the participants and opened the meeting, then introduced other City representatives and explained the format for the evening. Mr. Novak introduced Mr. Kilgore, Lakewood's City Engineer.

Mr. Kilgore made opening remarks and explained his perspective on the sewer issues and his previous involvement with the City related to the basement flooding issues. Mr. Kilgore described the current sewer evaluation project and introduced Metcalf & Eddy (M&E) as the City's engineering consultant. Mr. Kilgore outlined the public involvement activities for the evening, then introduced Ms. Wolff.

Ms. Wolff provided a presentation that included an overview of Lakewood's sewer history, the sewer system operation and maintenance, and typical problems that are found in residential laterals. Ms. Wolff then described the sewer operation during dry weather and how additional flows are handled during storm events. Ms. Wolff provided a summary of the City's new Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Long-Term Control Plan, including a description of the project phases and timeline and a summary of how the sewer system will be assessed. Ms. Wolff described some of the options for resolving the sewer's capacity issues including treatment, storage tunnels and tanks, relief sewers and preventive maintenance. Ms. Wolff then summarized the technical presentation and introduced Ms. McDonough.

Ms. McDonough summarized the project outreach process and stressed the importance of input from the community so that the engineering team can assess the sewer-related issues and develop the best solutions. Ms. McDonough asked the attendees to consider applying for a Community Committee to work with the project team, and to provide input by filling out an index card or by coming up to the microphone for questions and comments. The meeting was then opened up for questions.

Approximately 30 questions and comments were made by the meeting attendees, in addition to 18 written comments on index cards. The most prominent issues and concerns included:

1. Basement flooding. The majority of the meeting attendees are residents of Lakewood and many of them experience sewer backups and other basement flooding problems during storm events. Many residents have conducted regular cleaning and maintenance of their residential sewer laterals and have installed backflow preventors, but are not able to prevent the flooding. Many of the attendees appeared frustrated with the flooding problems and appeared very interested in the sewer project and the potential to improve the flooding problems through sewer improvements. A number of very constructive comments were made and there was a high level of interest from residents who would like to participate in the project and help the team find the best solutions to the sewer issues.

2. Schedule and costs for sewer improvements. Due to recent discussion of sewer rate increases by the City Council and due to the anticipated costs of this project, there was concern about costs to homeowners. Mr. Novak explained that the sewer rate increases proposed by the Council were separate from this project and therefore outside the scope of this meeting. Mr. Kilgore explained that the cost of this long-term sewer improvement project and the method/timeline for financing are currently unknown, but that cost-effectiveness will be one of the most important criteria when assessing the options, and that information will be shared with the public as it is developed throughout the project. In addition, Mr. Kilgore explained that the project schedule is not yet set. The sewer improvement plan will be submitted to Ohio EPA in 2006 and the schedule will be negotiated at that time, but an estimated timeframe is approximately 2012 for full implementation of the sewer improvements.

3. Coordination with the City on sewer-related issues. Many of the attendees have contacted the City to record basement flooding problems in the past, and/or to request help in identifying clogs and other sources of backups. Several attendees commented that the City was responsive when they requested inspections of their lines and other support. However, others were not able to resolve their concerns or were unsure who to contact, leading to some uncertainty about what type of help is available. One of the goals of the public outreach for this project will be to provide some clarification to help resolve this issue.