JACKSON TOWNSHIP — The wastewater district that services Cinnamon Lake residents in northeast Ashland County has received a $1 million grant to upgrade old infrastructure.
The grant will be awarded to the Lorain County Rural Wastewater District (LORCO), the entity that oversees sewage treatment at Cinnamon Lake and parts of Lorain County.
Gene Toy, LORCO’s executive director, said the organization will use the money to upgrade the eight lift stations that service the roughly 560 customers at Cinnamon Lake.
Toy said LORCO will begin the lift station project as soon as the entity receives a permit to install from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
“We should have that within a month,” he said of the permit. “Once we have that, we’ll go out to bid. Work could start by early fall and completed by the end of the year.”
Where is the money coming from?
The $1 million is coming from the Ohio’s One-Time Strategic Community Investment Fund, according to a news release issued by state Sen. Mark Romanchuk (R-Ontario).
It’s one of five grants being divvied in Romanchuk’s district and is part of $700 million set aside in House Bill 33 that legislators passed in June 2023. The funding is available through application on projects that might not qualify for the state’s traditional Capital Budget that happens every two years.
Each chamber of the Legislature planned for $350 million of the total amount.
Toy said LORCO applied for the money in November 2023.
“And if we were not successful, that cost would have probably been passed onto customers. We wanted to avoid that,” Toy said.
LORCO took over ownership of the private homeowners association community’s wastewater treatment in 2017. Toy said the community wasn’t ever intended to be a year-round place that it’s become.
Cinnamon Lake was established in the 1970s as “a residential recreational development with a vacation feel,” according to its website. It now is home to around 600 permanent residents.
“When their treatment plant was built, it was intended to operate minimally for part of the year. But it’s grown significantly over the years. And things wear out, and they’re undersized,” he said.
This project comes on the heels of a $2.5 million project LORCO completed in late 2022, which connected Cinnamon Lake to a treatment center in West Salem.
Ashland County commissioners granted that project $500,000 in February 2022 using American Rescue Plan Act funds. LORCO also used $750,000 in Community Development Block Grant money and a $1 million water infrastructure grant from Ohio BUILDS.
Are rate increases coming?
The upgrades to Cinnamon Lake’s wastewater infrastructure have resulted in rate increases to the customers.
In January, the rates increased by 15%, to a minimum monthly bill of $59.56 — which covers the first 2,000 gallons. Every 1,000 gallons over that is billed another $9.89, Toy said.
Toy said the last rate increase before January’s was February 2021.
Toy said the upcoming project on upgrading the lift stations will not result in a rate increase, because the $1 million grant will cover the cost.