The OMI pipe collapse will cost OMI cities at least $100 million. Warren Mayor James Fouts is glad that he decided to build a detention basin in the City of Warren and thus save additional taxpayer dollars. If the City of Warren had gone with the OMI, the taxpayers of Warren would have had to pay at least $22 million dollars up front and a large amount yearly PLUS the cost of the sink hole repair.
This will be a bond with interest for a number of years. This is similar to the break that took place ten years ago. It would seem that officials might have learned something from the last break. This is a 30-year-old pipe and it’s supposed to be inspected every ten years. Apparently, that was inspected in 2007. Maybe they need to inspect it every few years not every ten years. And also, have some monitoring systems and policies to alert officials to a break immediately. Warren Mayor James Fouts appreciates the fact that the Warren City Council ( 5-2 ) voted two weeks ago to pass the dentition project to alleviate flooding in Warren and ultimately the City of Warren is likely to save the taxpayers money from the now very costly OMI.
Warren Mayor James Fouts would like to extend his heart felt sympathies to the residents in that area who will have to endure the pungent odor, the difficulty in transportation, disruption in normal services, the long wait to repair of at least 6-8 months, and in some cases the loss of their home and valuable possessions. All of this because of the lack of proper monitoring or at least a more reliable system. Warren Mayor James Fouts is willing to consider sharing his experience and knowledge to prevent this from happening again. A thorough study must be conducted to make sure this never happens again.