The original Project Dry Basement, which called on residents to have backflow devices installed in their homes, was abruptly voted down, 8-3, by City Council in February, effectively killing the legislation.

-- Includes the city shouldering some of the costs it previously asked homeowners to pay in cases where homeowners can show documented basement flooding.

-- Includes all of City Council's suggestions to improve the original plan, such as reducing inspection fees and exempting newer homes from inspection requirements.

-- Will add about $1.81 to residents' monthly utility bills to pay for the new program if it's approved -- $1 per month for residential storm sewer rates and 15 cents per cubic foot more on their sewer rates. That is about 80 cents per household, per month, according to figures provided by Foltin.

Owners of homes built after 1973 still would be required to disconnect footer and drain tiles from the city's storm water sewage system when they sell their homes.

Basement flooding in Lorain has been a problem for decades. It is largely caused by water entering the city's sanitary sewer system, causing it to back up and flood during heavy rains.

Rainwater should flow into the storm sewer system, while household waste should flow into the sanitary sewer system. The two systems should not mix or be connected.

But the city's problem is a tough one to solve, because the rain entering the sanitary sewers comes from older homes in Lorain -- thousands of sources all on private property.

Odarise McCall-Wheeler is one such resident. After several incidents of basement flooding in the last few years, her family had a one-way valve installed to prevent sewage backup in their West 18th Street home.

The most controversial portion of the original program would have made residents bear the cost of disconnecting their footer and drain tiles from storm sewer lines -- a cost of several thousand dollars to the homeowner. However, the city would have offered no-interest loans to resident as part of the program.

Council members Dan Given, D-at-large, and Eddie Edwards, D-5, who both opposed the program before, said they didn't want homeowners to have to pay too much of the program's cost.

Councilman David Wargo, D-1, said he thinks there should be less focus on the backflow valves and more of a maintenance program for the city's sewers.

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