Did Mayor Kalb tell JEFF BARRON the Whole Story?

The Real Reason Mike Shaw Quit as City Waste Water Director -

By Austin Leedom, posted at 12:45 a.m. Monday 4 October 2005

Mayor Jim Kalb apparently did not tell Portsmouth Daily Times (PDT) Reporter JEFF BARRON "the rest of the story" when Barron interviewed Kalb concerning the retirement of Mike Shaw. See Barron’s frontpage article printed on Saturday, April 2, 2005 in the Portsmouth Daily Times.

Mike Shaw Served the City for 29 years.

Did Mayor Jim Kalb tell Jeff Barron that he had been secretly negotiating with former wastewater director Rick Duncan for over a month while planning to force Mike Shaw out of his position? Rick Duncan had been the Portsmouth Waste Water Director before leaving town in the early nineties when Frank Gerlach was Mayor; Duncan has been working as an engineer in Toledo.

Kalb has unduly criticized Mike Shaw.

When the Mayor learned that Shaw had not made repairs on some equipment and at times allowed untreated waste water to enter into the Ohio River the mayor then had an excuse to "force" Mr. Shaw to resign his position so Mayor Kalb could bring Rick Duncan back to Portsmouth.

Water Funds were short; Shaw was trying to save money for city.

Prior to the retirement of Mike Shaw, the Sentinel had received inside information that Shaw had told his employees to by-pass the water around the treatment plant during rainy times in order, "to save the city money." Did Jim Kalb tell Reporter Barron that the City had not been properly funding the wastewater program?

The Sentinel has long been aware that the necessary funds for maintenance have not been provided to Mike Shaw’s department.

Money collected by the city for water services is, by law, only to be spent by the Water Department; all money collected is to go into an earmarked account for water department use only.

However, during the time Greg Bauer and Jim Kalb have been in the Mayor’s Office the Water funds have, by various improper means, been co-mingled with other city funds. This has resulted in an insufficiency of money for water department maintenance. This problem of not providing Mike Shaw with sufficient money to do a proper job is known to other government employees, including a high county official.

Water rates increased six times in seven years.

During the six and one-half years Greg Bauer was Mayor the city water rates were raised five times for a total 64% increase. Jim Kalb was in the Mayor’s office less that six months when he too, raised the water fees, without council approval.

Is Kalb Worse Than Bauer?

Jim Kalb has been grossly unfair to several people in many of his actions since taking office and has made little improvement in any part of the city operations; in fact, many people are of the opinion that Jim Kalb is worse than Greg Bauer.

Six increases in water fees in seven years. Why?

The first action by Mayor Jim Kalb in 2005 was to again raise water rates, without council approval. Former Mayor Bauer and Mayor Kalb have burdened the citizens with six water hikes in only seven years. You may expect Jim Kalb to raise rates again if he remains in office. You can also expect expenses of other city departments to continue to be billed to the water department as "charge-offs," resulting in more deficiencies in money available for necessary wastewater maintenance.

Two questions arise.

One, will Mayor Kalb make an investigation to attempt to find further substantiation for his actions in the Mike Shaw matter?

Two, will former Director Mike Shaw furnish documentary evidence to state and federal officials to reveal Environmental Protection violations ordered by his superiors?

By Austin Leedom, posted at 12:45 a.m. Monday 4 October 2005 -  Repost 18 Aug 08

Mr. Sudhir Desai
U.S. EPA
Chicago Office

Re: Wastewater/storm water run-off and combined
sewers in Portsmouth, OH

As I described in our telephone conversation of yesterday, many residents in my neighborhood and I have been and currently are getting sewage and sewage-contaminated water in our basements during rainfall (differing levels) owing to the developments at the Southern Ohio Medical Center, Hill View Retirement Community, and some doctors’ offices in the area.

I am asking for help from the U.S. EPA and the Ohio EPA to force the City of Portsmouth and the aforementioned developments to immediately plan and build appropriate systems to divert current and future runoff from the city’s combined sewers.

I moved back to Portsmouth after a 30-year absence and bought a home in July 2002. I began reading of problems neighbors further “downstream” suffered as a result of the combined sewers and the hospital’s development (Southern Ohio Medical Center). A lawsuit was filed on behalf of the homeowners in 2004.

I never had any water in my basement from the time I bought it until November of 2006.

During the previous year, my neighbors and I successfully fought a zone change request on a property diagonally across from me that was operating as a doctor’s office. It had some parking including some on gravel/ground. After the zoning request was denied, a variance was received (with no notice to neighbors), the doctor expanded nonetheless and built a parking lot on almost 3 sides of the building. It all drains directly to the city’s combined sewers.
Hill View Retirement Center also built additional housing units and parking during and after this time frame, taking more land out of their drainage system and adding more runoff directly to the combined sewers. These two developments now add large amounts of extra runoff right into the sewers…less than 10 feet above my property line.

In November 2006, my fiancé (just months after surgery and while on chemo treatments) and I pumped water out of my basement and carried it upstairs and dumped 5-gallon buckets out into the yard as fast as we could carry. This was around 9:00 p.m. I stayed up all night and continued to suction it up myself and carry it out for fear it was too much for him. I was trying to save my mechanicals and stored items. At the time, I didn’t even know the sewers were combined and that the water was contaminated.

I spent nearly $1,700 for remedial work at the time. I also had to divert all my drains away from the house (instead of the system installed when the house was built) so as to not add to the flow in any way myself.

This was meant to be a temporary fix and it is quite unsightly. I have estimated that it will cost the following to address the problems and to protect my property as best I can:

$1,700 – spent for remedial work

$1,500 - $2,000 – back-flow preventer (I was advised by the Mayor, my council member and the city’s health department to install this at my own expense. I was also told that the city would not pay for this even though the city sewers caused the problem.)

$1,500 - $2,000 – sump pump (also advised that this
would be tied into the same combined sewers that caused the problem to begin with)

$1,800 - $2,500 – French drains around entire property

$500 – $1,000 landscape and other repair

Total: $8,700 - $9,200. Some of these figures are more
than a year old.

After the loss of some irreplaceable items (recorded music on tape) from the November 2006 incident, I made other arrangements for storage; however, with the rains received June 4, 2008 the sewage contaminated water returned to my basement at about the 4-5 inch level.

Again my mechanicals were threatened. Furthermore, as the sewage water drained out, we were hit with a tornado warning. My fiancé, dog and I took refuge there and, consequently, were again exposed to the sewage water contaminates.

While my recent experience was difficult, it pales in comparison to the blight of some people up and down Shawnee Road (one side of my property abuts Shawnee Road; I have a corner property) and Grandview.

I have attached PDFs of articles from the Portsmouth Daily Times newspaper for those sad stories. The problems were enormously acerbated since the 2004 lawsuit by additional construction of SOMC on the main campus and on their satellite campus on 25th street. They bought one building, added to it and parking; built another building and parking and enlarged another operation.

Also, two doctors bought a residential property next to the hospital’s satellite campus on 25th street, changed it into doctors’ offices and added a parking lot on the front. All of this 25th Street development, according to the director of the sewage treatment plant

 Rick Duncan,

runs directly into the combined sewers. He is uncertain if a church parking lot (which is enormous) next to the SOMC 25th Street satellite campus runs directly into the combined sewers of question or not.

City officials have no problem telling me and other residents that we should spent $8,000 - $10,000 to protect our properties from a problem created by their inadequate and unlawful management of the combined sewer program.

Personally, I don’t have another $1,500 to throw at this problem much less an additional $8,000.

The city has been warned as attested to by the letters sent by the Ohio EPA in 2004 and again this week. I sent these by separate email to you.

More than that, our properties have been rendered essentially worthless by the sewage backup problem in that we cannot and will not be able to sell our property. It has de facto been “a taking of property” by the local government to benefit certain private property owners.

The local residents affected and perhaps more yet to be affected, desperately need your assistance to address these problems.

I ask that the U.S. EPA and the Ohio EPA immediately enforce all laws and regulations possible to require that the City of Portsmouth, the Southern Ohio Medical Center, Hill View Retirement community and Drs. Dreidger (1870 Coles Blvd.) and Drs. Lichtenstein & Zayneh (2127 25th Street) immediately engineer/design AND build alternate run-off systems.

I also ask that you require appropriate and independent engineering studies be required by the City of Portsmouth on ANY development, including residential, that drains into the combined sewers above or at the neighborhoods so affected. This should also apply to any current construction.

For example, Hill View Retirement community has started another construction project in the last few weeks.

Our quality of life has been devastated. The 85-year old couple that just moved in is heart-broken. I have been despondent over the situation. We all have been. We need your help, as we are getting none at the local level.

I am walking the neighborhood this weekend with these documents, your email address, Mike Yandrich’s email address and other pertinent information so that residents can personally let you know of their sufferings. We are also addressing Council and the Mayor on this at the next Council meeting Monday, June 23.

With my sincere thanks.

Jane Murray
1920 Dorman Drive
Portsmouth, OH 45662
740/353-5354
mjanemurray@yahoo.com