I live in what was Northampton. In buying my home in 2004, I did not know I would become part of a turf war that started in a merger some twenty years ago. I came to find the pervious owner chose to have Cuyahoga Falls City Water, and I had to pay a lean on the property to tap in to city water, which I did with no complaint. Then my utility bills started coming with two bill amounts for water, my usage amount and something called a "high pressure fee". My high-pressure fee (HPF) is actually more then my usage fee! This month I used $7.64 of water and my HPF was $8.60. Having spent some time talking with city officials in the water department, the finance department, and finally city council, the convoluted answer for this fee was that in 1985 Northampton was afraid it was going to be devoured by Akron so they made a deal with Cuyahoga Falls to merge. This merger was the only one of its kind in Ohio and it seems that some Northampton residents are paying for it. I was told "Old Cuyahoga Falls" wanted Northampton, but did not want to pay any of the costs for this merger. I was told that Northampton was benefiting in many ways from this merger, but having about 1500 citizens pay for a 4.5 million dollar investment for city water seems to be an excessive burden. I was told that at the time, Cuyahoga Falls thought there would be more development and therefore more people to shoulder the burden. I was told that they were shocked that more Northampton residents did not want to opt in. What was even more disturbing, the officials told me with much acrimony that Northampton was fighting to keep their green community from being overly developed, and this was contributing to my cost burden.

In conclusion, I am sorry Northampton did not become to cash bonanza city officials were hoping for, but with the water utility rate hikes looming, is it fair for 1500 citizens to pay between 85 and 102 percent more for water until 2014 than the other citizens? Are we not equal? I could try to stay positive; Mrs. Carr sarcastically mentioned that when the water rate increase goes into effect, my high pressure fee will no longer be more expensive than my water fee. In all fairness we were both joking

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