Changes to Source Water Assessment and Protection Committee up for Discussion Tonight

North Canton City Council will meet a half earlier than usual tonight (6:30 p.m.) inside City Hall to make time for discussion about the SWAP committee.

Council heard opposition to the proposed changes regarding the Source Water Assessment and Protection committee at its meeting Jan. 17. North Canton resident Melanie Roll was one person who opposed the proposed changes, which would give the superintendent of the drinking water treatment plant the responsibility of setting the committee’s meetings.

The SWAP committee formed to assist the city in monitoring potential contamination near water production wells. On the committee are three North Canton residents (Miriam Baughman, Bob Pattison and Greg Wernet), City Administrator Michael Grimes and Rich Steinhebel, a non-voting member and superintendent of the drinking water treatment plant.

“The proposed changes to the SWAP committee that are scheduled for a vote this evening, I think, would challenge the notion of open government,” Roll said Jan. 17. “The agenda of the SWAP committee should not, in my opinion, be set by a city employee, nor should that city employee be the one who calls the meetings.”

Roll asked council table indefinitely the changes to the resolution “to ensure North Canton citizens continue to have a voice through the SWAP committee."

moved to table the resolution to allow for further discussion, which Council voted in favor of.

Also on the agenda: discussion about the proposed sewer and water rate increases, which Council .