WARREN — Trumbull County commissioners on Wednesday delayed voting on a possible water rate increase to $12 per 1,000 gallons for county users to see if residents on homestead programs and other low- and fixed-income residents may be able to obtain discounts.

Trumbull’s sanitary sewer department has been recommending an increase in the water rates to enable the county to pay its supplier for the water being supplied to its 11,000 customers. Bob Maiorano, comptroller at the county’s sanitary department, said the county’s water department has about $311,000 available to pay for water. It cost the county just over $100,000 per month to pay for its bulk water purchases.

“Our debt payment is due in April,” he said. “We will be nearly out of money by the end of April. We still will continue to lose just over $100,000 per month.”

Commissioner Tony Bernard on Wednesday said he was not prepared to vote on an increase because he does not believe the department has done everything it can to reduce its costs.

“I just think there needs to be more cuts out of the sanitation engineer’s department,” he said. “I’ve been asking for that since day one. I have not seen any recommendations from them. They keep saying they can’t cut, but I’m not sure I believe that.”

Bernard also has been critical that the current board members were told there is an immediate need for an increase when many of these same conditions existed during the past four to five years. Bernard questioned why there was a $1.5 million deficit in 2024, different levels of shortfalls since 2019 and there was nothing done to address the problem before this year.

Prior to providing his support to any rate increase, Bernard said he wants to see cuts within that department.

Gary Newbrough, head of the county sanitary / sewer department, said the department has not filled five full-time positions that have become available in the past six months.

“We have looked at every facet of our department and there is no fat,” Newbrough said. “We are as lean as we can possibly be.”

Commissioner Denny Malloy, currently the longest serving commissioner on the board, asked his fellow board members to use the week to go to the water department to see its operations for themselves.

“See the areas where our money is going to, so we know first hand what needs to be upgraded and who is doing what out there,” he said. “If things need to be cut, then we can make recommendations at that time.”

Bernard responded the department has a comptroller on staff and it is up to him to make recommendations of where to make cuts.

Commissioner Rick Hernandez called the department a very well-run operation.

“The last thing we want to do is to have it go into a fiscal emergency,” he said. “We are at the end of the rope.”

Hernandez noted several area departments have higher rates than Trumbull, including Canfield at $15.94 per 1,000 gallons; Aqua Ohio at $14.34 per 1,000 gallons, Lordstown at $13.55 per 1,000 gallons and Girard at $20.12 per 1,000 gallons.

“I don’t think Trumbull County is out of line,” he said. “It (the increase) should have been done incrementally over the last 10 years.”

The department is down five positions already and it needs to be able to provide the services to residents, according to Malloy.

“I want the chlorine tests to be done regularly,” Malloy said. “I want the maintenance done and I don’t think we can skimp when it comes to the safety of the water we have.”

Malloy said the previous board decided not to pass a water rate increase last year because the county passed a sewer rate increase, and the board did not want to have both a water rate and sewer rate increase during the same year.

Although Hernandez agreed to the week delay in the vote, he warned a further delay could put the county in greater jeopardy of being placed in fiscal emergency by the state because of Trumbull’s inability to pay its bills.

Maiorano said if the commissioners do not pass the proposed increase, the commissioners could pay for the cost of the bulk water purchase through its general fund. The county passed its 2025 general fund budget during Wednesday’s meeting.

Maiorano said he has never seen the county pay for its water using general fund dollars.

Malloy told the other commissioners that he has been contacted by economic experts in the area who said they are concerned about the water rate increase discussions and big projects that are coming up in the county.

“We want to make sure we don’t send bad messages out to the public,” Malloy said. “We will work through this (water rate) issue together as a board. We are not going to let the water issue halt anything. This is not a standoff that should send any bad indicators to the people looking to develop here. We are going to pay the bill. This will not be a county in fiscal emergency.”