There will soon be a little something added to the water supply of customers of the Northern Area Water Authority treatment which serves Tipp City, Monroe Township and Vandalia.
City Council voted unanimously Monday night to add enough fluoride to the water supply to raise the level to 1 milligram per liter. City Manager David Collinsworth said the city is mandated by Ohio Revised Code (ORC) to fluoridate its water supply because it has more than 5,000 residents.
The level is recommended by the state Environmental Protection Agency.
There still, however, may be a loophole if enough residents want to defy the ORC.
City Attorney Joseph Moore said Tipp City residents passed a referendum in 1970 which allowed the city to opt out of putting fluoride in the water. That action, 37 years ago, now gives residents a right to pass a referendum to continue opting out of the fluoride program.
"The referendum would override the ORC," Moore said.
Chuck Smith, a Tipp City dentist, said the program was a good way to help improve the dental health of poorer children who can't seek proper care.
Water was also the subject of a work session prior to Monday night's meeting as Collinsworth gave a three-year review of the Tippecanoe Family Aquatic Center. He said revenues for 2007 were $369,225 with expenses being $407,062. In 2006 revenues totaled $374,353 while expenses were $382,122.
Other notes from the review were:
Average daily attendance was 566
2007 total attendance was 52,673
Peak day attendance was 1,286
Total staff was 77 with 94 percent of them living in the 45371 zip code
Total slices of pizza sold were 6,045
Collinsworth said that council might want to look at a modest increase in membership and / or admission fees, concessions and swim lessons. Council had considered such increases at the beginning of this season, but decided not to make the move.
"We also need to look at doing more marketing of the facility for birthdays and for after hours events," Collinsworth said. "We decided to close at 7 instead of 8 on Friday and Saturday nights hoping to increase our rentals on those nights, but that didn't occur."
Collinsworth also stated that the city's 3-year contract with Dayton Pool Management, who manages the pool for the city, expires at the end of the year. He said he recommends extending the contract for a year.
"They have done an excellent job of operating the pool and training the staff," he said. "I think our lifeguards are superior to most of the other guards in the area.
"In addition they are experts in operating pool facilities which means if a problem develops, they have the personnel to handle it quickly. We could go out for bids, but I don't think there is another firm out there that can do as good a job as they have."
"Ads published on this site are not for republication in print or web
media without the expressed written consent of both the advertiser and
The Brown Publishing Company."
