“Since before serious negotiations on annexation of the CSU campus were initiated, the city has firmly and consistently asserted that as a condition of annexation, it will not assume the liability of state-owned utility infrastructure on the CSU campus which suffers from years of neglect and which will cost millions of dollars to repair and replace,” the city said in a statement.
“Over the past year, CSU has continually attempted through the pre-annexation agreement negotiation process to saddle the city of Xenia with these costly obligations. The city will not accept such terms of responsibility.”
Xenia City Council offered a three-month temporary service agreement for water and sewer service with Central State at the beginning of the year. That temporary agreement is now set to expire on March 31.
The university’s water will be shut off on April 1 “short of an acceptable permanent solution,” the city said.
At the same time, the city of Xenia rejects the notion that they bear any blame for the delay, something the university asserted in a Friday statement when CSU trustees voted to reject the city’s most recent draft contract for annexation. Trustees said they turned down the agreement because Xenia did not provide final revisions until less than 24 hours before the board of trustees’ scheduled meeting.
“The city of Xenia is not responsible for any delay in a final outcome for a conversation we have been pursuing with CSU for over a decade,” Xenia officials said Tuesday.
Xenia provided the Dayton Daily News with public records documenting the city’s negotiations with the university over the last two years. The city provided a timeline that indicates there were times during this period where Central State did not reply for several months.
The city sent its most recent offer just before 4 p.m. March 19. University trustees voted to reject the offer the next day.
“CSU is fully prepared to take this important step to secure reliable water and sewer services for our campus community. However, Xenia’s final revisions were not provided until late in the afternoon of March 19, less than 24 hours before the board’s scheduled meeting, despite the timing of the meeting having been communicated to the city,” said Central State board chair Jacqueline Gamblin.
“The board requires a brief extension of time to ensure CSU can maintain its existing access to this essential service through an arrangement that is fair to all parties.”
However, city records indicate that Central State University did the same thing on March 11, providing their own update to city council hours before council was set to discuss the subject.
In an email to the department of higher education in October, Xenia City Manager Brent Merriman wrote that Central State had three major water main breaks in the preceding 12 months. Since Central State has no utility system monitoring, the leaks were only discovered after the city’s own water infrastructure was directly affected, Merriman wrote.
“CSU’s water and sanitary sewer infrastructure — all property of the state of Ohio — is outdated and in disrepair, and the deficiencies of this infrastructure ... present a substantial danger to city interests and licenses,” Merriman wrote. “The lack of action to address these concerns adversely impacts the city’s willingness to maintain our connection to university systems and to continue to provide utility services.”
This is the latest in a long saga which came to a head last December. Xenia and Central State began to negotiate more urgently after Central State received a water bill in December for over $300,000, according to records obtained by the Dayton Daily News. The city of Xenia incorrectly applied a credit to the university’s balance, meaning CSU thought the balance was lower.
A letter from Xenia to Central State obtained by this news outlet says the money was incorrectly applied to CSU’s account after a water main break on campus in July. The misapplied credit totaled $184,333.
The Dayton Daily News has reached out to Central State officials who did not immediately respond. This story will be updated.
