December 3, 2008

County controller: Millcreek official should resign

GoErie.com

BY JOHN GUERRIERO
john.guerriero@timesnews.com

Former Millcreek Supervisor Sue Weber returned to familiar territory when she spoke before the Board of Supervisors.

It wasn’t a harmonious homecoming.

Weber claimed Tuesday that George Riedesel, executive director of the Millcreek Township water and sewer authorities, was “out of control'’ over some Water Authority projects that she called a waste of money.

Weber, the county controller who spoke as a member of a task force that seeks cheaper and cleaner water for more Millcreek residents, also said that Riedesel should resign.

Supervisors Brian McGrath and Larry Curtis listened to Weber, then defended Riedesel’s job performance. The third supervisor, Joseph Kujawa, was on vacation.

“I have complete confidence in George. I think he does a great job,'’ McGrath said after the weekly supervisors’ meeting.

Curtis said he’s disagreed with Riedesel on some issues. “Believe me, I’m not on George’s Christmas-card list,'’ he said. But Curtis said that Riedesel is a competent manager who does a good job.

Riedesel said that Weber should “mind her own … business. I work for a board and obviously I’m not a policymaker. I’m an administrator of the Millcreek Township Water Authority.'’

Riedesel also said of Weber: “There’s a woman that’s not bothered by the facts.'’

Weber said she knows the facts, serving 12 years as a supervisor and as a former board liaison to the township’s water and sewer authorities.

Before the supervisors’ meeting, Weber said she went to Riedesel’s office in the township building. “He yelled and screamed at me and walked out,'’ she told the supervisors.

Riedesel acknowledged raising his voice and walking out of his own office to end the meeting. He said that Weber showed up without an appointment and “began attacking me verbally'’ about proposals that he said she viewed as “stupid and foolish.'’

Riedesel said Weber has no engineering background and “attacked things of an engineering nature.'’ Riedesel is a licensed civil engineer.

At the meeting, Weber questioned the authority’s spending of $47,000 on a pending study that examines the possibility of the authority building its own water-treatment plant and intake pipe to provide water to its customers and others.

The study comes as the authority and Millcreek supervisors are looking at the possibility of leasing its system to Erie Water Works.

Riedesel said the study is not a bargaining chip in talks with the waterworks, but would lay out an option for the Millcreek authority.

Weber also criticized Millcreek’s application to the county’s Gaming Revenue Authority for $1.28 million for a new higher-capacity water-pump station that would replace an existing 20-year-old facility on upper Peach Street.

Erie Water Works and Summit Township Water Authority recently spent about $80,000 in upgrades to the Millcreek-owned pump station, which Weber said has far more capacity than is needed now or in the immediate future.

Riedesel said upgrades were needed to meet current capacity.

But he said a new pump station is required to meet long-term needs, “unless people believe … growth on upper Peach Street and McKean is done, and I doubt anybody believes that.'’

Paul Vojtek, Erie Water Works chief executive, said it seems premature to seek a grant for a pump station “that we don’t know is absolutely necessary at this point.'’

Vojtek, who didn’t provide the Millcreek authority with a letter of support for the project, said he wants to see a pending engineer’s report commissioned by the Millcreek authority.

Weber and others have complained about the Millcreek authority’s higher rates compared with the rates charged by Erie Water Works for its Millcreek customers. Weber is a Millcreek resident and an Erie Water Works customer.

About 7,000 Millcreek residential and business customers are billed by the Millcreek Water Authority. Another 10,000 pay to the Erie Water Works.

The Millcreek authority gets most of its water from Erie Water Works and resells it to its customers.

Riedesel said low-volume users pay 20 to 25 percent more, while most others pay 50 percent more. Businesses that use a lot of water get a high-volume discount equivalent to what Erie Water Works charges, he said.

Riedesel said the rates are higher because of the amount that it pays for water from Erie Water Works, and the Millcreek authority is paying off debt for capital projects over a short time.

JOHN GUERRIERO can be reached at 870-1690 or by e-mail.