Madison, OH. Township Asks Wal-Mart to Contribute for Infrastructure

Trustees ask Wal-Mart to chip in for waterlines [News-Herald (Calif.)]

Madison Township trustees want Wal-Mart to help pay for a waterline project that would cost affected Meadow Wood Drive residents about $15,000 each.

Trustees Jeff Quirk, Pete Wayman and Bill Brotzman agreed unanimously to ask the retail chain to help the Meadow Wood Homeowners Association.

The association said Wal-Mart started a sewer line that wound up with homeowners switching from well water to county water.

“This change, we believe, led to one of the wells on Meadow Wood Drive testing positive for E. coli,” association President Doug Stauffer said in a written statement to trustees.

“It was after the well tested positive for E. coli that we felt forced to seek a way to protect the health of our families, as well as the value of our homes. We believe that Wal-Mart didn’t really recognize the impact to watershed that development of the Madison site caused and hasn’t adequately protected its neighbors.”

The association said it would like to see trustees “requiring Wal-Mart to in some way offset the damages.”

In their statement, trustees said they wrote to Ron Mosby Sr., the Ohio senior manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart:

“It is believed that the construction of your Madison Township store located due south of their homes has led to their problems.

“We are asking that you participate in the costs of the waterline project. The Meadow Wood Drive residents did not have these problems prior to your store being built and we feel they should not have to bear the project costs themselves.

“We also request that drainage problems also be addressed to lessen the impact of changes in the watershed. This water table change has caused flooding and drainage problems that did not exist before.”

Trustees, the Homeowners Association and nearby Madison Country Club said water-switching problems were compounded by the historic July 2006 flood that hit Lake County.

“The greens superintendent of Madison Country, Terry Hambleton, and we are convinced that the water table north of Wal-Mart has been dramatically changed,” the association wrote.

The association said the “unexpected situation” is costing 13 homeowners a total of $195,000, or $15,000 per household.

“New streams have appeared after just a moderate rainfall where no water flowed before,” the association wrote.

Two homes on Meadow Wood at Green Road are not affected, as they are connected to a waterline on Green Road.

Mosby said Wednesday he had not seen the letter from township trustees.

“I can’t really comment yet,” Mosby said.

Copies of the letter also were sent to other Wal-Mart officials.