Hello,
If residents should have concerns or complaints about anything village related (can’t help with neighbor to neighbor disputes) please contact the village administrators office at 740-655-3443 and leave a message if no answer, or email me at mayor@adelphiohio.com, or feel free to attend a village council meeting. Meetings are generally the 2nd Tuesday at 7 pm. There is an appropriate time and place to conduct business. I’m happy to take the time to meet with any of our residents or property owners one on one if they legitimately cannot attend a meeting. Please do not come to my door and interrupt my family time, or question my wife about village business when she is out in public, she is not privy to what is going on, and does not wish to be.
I am paid $300 a month to do this job, and at the end of the day I make far less than minimum wage for the time invested to look out for the interest of our community. Our average attendance from residents at our meetings is less than 1 person, has been for years. That makes it really hard for your officials to understand and look out for the needs of the community.
I know it’s not popular, but there was a sewer rate increase implemented this July, the first rate increase ever since the system was brought online in 2008. We’ve operated at a deficit for 5 years to avoid raising rates and there will most likely be another increase in rates following shortly, due to EPA mandated improvements at the plant that treats our waste.
If you’ve been around the area long you know that it took Adelphi many years to complete the sewer system. My part of the project came in under budget and ahead of schedule. The previous administrations are to blame for the mismanagement of your money and the high cost of sewage treatment. When I took office they had been non compliant with EPA orders for 38 years. A previous administration authorized work that was unapproved by the EPA and the village had to pay for that. The initial low bidder on the project which the village was required to accept defaulted on the project which resulted in litigation and more added cost to all of us.
Just last week myself, the council president and a few others from the community took time off work, or away from their families or otherwise volunteered to conduct smoke testing of our villages sanitary sewer system to identify possible sources of clean water infiltration that results in unnecessary expense to all of us.
Your village officials have worked long and hard to keep the current rate increase to a minimum, it was initially projected that a 28% increase was necessary, we were able to reduce that to roughly 13 %.
Adelphi has recently been awarded $192,400 in grant funds to help with our sewer infrastructure issues which are directly related to previous mismanagement. I’ve also spent the last 2 afternoons on the phone with our senators and representatives begging for $1 million dollars in aide due to cost overruns directly related to COVID 19 inflation on an EPA mandated project at the Laurelville waste water treatment plant.
The village always welcomes constructive input at our monthly meetings, via phone message, letter, or email. My term expires 12/31/2023. I have been unopposed since 2008 and am the only current village official who had paid the filing fee to get on the ballot, everyone else has been appointed. I’m tired, and welcome opposition, but will at a minimum, complete my current term.
P.S. If you feel you can improve upon how we are doing things, I welcome you, please help our community.
Respectfully
Mayor Joshua Hettinger