Lima Mayor David Berger has been involved and influential in the U.S. Conference of Mayors and recently attended a leadership conference in Dayton.
It has been nearly 2 years since mayors from across the country have been able to gather in person. Last week, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, who is the president of the group, held a leadership conference where they were able to continue working on agendas involving federal funding opportunities, the infrastructure bill, and the CARES Act.
Berger is the chair of the Mayor’s Water Council and Vice Chair of the Environmental Council. He addressed the group about the importance of continuing water issue mandates by keeping a focus on balance.
Lima Mayor David Berger adds, “Balance between environmental enforcement and improvements and the inputs that unfunded mandates might have particularly on low to moderate-income households in communities around the country.”
Berger is also concerned about newly enacted mandates surrounding lead service line issues stemming from the problems in Flint Michigan. He says funding for this was to be paid by the federal government but now they are talking about a loan program. Berger says that the issue in Flint is not what all communities are seeing.
Berger goes on to say, “What we’ve now got is a circumstance where cities all around the country are being treated as if our water systems in fact are poisoning people, they are not.”
He says replacement of the service lines could run up to 60-billion dollars that would be levied on the shoulders of communities around the country and questions whether this is the best way to spend money.
