The village is seeking a $1.28 million loan in the next few weeks that would help seal its sanitary sewer lines and rehab about 140 manholes in an effort to prevent groundwater from seeping into the system.

In some places, holes and cracks in the roughly 80-year-old lines have allowed storm water to flow into the sewer system. The additional water seeping into the system is forcing the village to treat more water than necessary at the village’s treatment facility, said April Higgins Davis, village administrator.

The project would also also rehabilitate manhole covers in the village that need to be sealed and repaired.

The project would use sliplining, a process to install new, smaller pipes within the existing sewer system. Doing so will be more cost-effective for the village and will prevent them from having to dig up their entire existing sewer infrastructure, Davis said. The project would cover about 22,500 linear feet of sewer line, she said.

To cover the cost of the project, residents will pay a $5 charge on their combined water and sewer bill this year, an additional $5 next year and an additional $5 the third year for a total of $15. The village is seeking the loan from the Ohio Water Development Authority, and it will repay the loan over about 20 years.

This is considered the first phase to the village’s sewer infrastructure. A second phase will eventually include upgrades at the village’s water treatment facility.

“We’ve been planning these things for three years now,” Davis said.

Although the existing sewer lines are decades old, the new pipes could last for as long as 50 years.

“The useful life of them is a long time,” Davis said.

The village has already accepted a handful of bids for the project, and it could select a contractor by early this moth. The village would submit the loan application to the OWDA by mid-March, and it should know by the end of next month if the loan is approved.

Davis said the village was recently forced to lay off a street department employee and a part-time water maintenance employee, due to a restructuring of its maintenance department, as well as the failure of a recent proposed levy.

The proposed three-year, 3-mill levy would have generated about $59,000 for the village to maintain and repair streets. Voters rejected an attempt to pass the levy last fall.