LORDSTOWN, Ohio - A decision made by two Lordstown elected officials could scrap plans for a $1-billion investment in the Valley.

"My first concern of course is the Lordstown residents," Board of Public Affairs member Michael Sullivan said, "Those are who elected us."

The Board of Public Affairs makes decisions surrounding utilities. This means their decisions can impact your bills, and in this case, the billion-dollar project.

Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill believes the board can be short-sighted and said for an issue like this, that's too much power.

"They have to realize, you know, there's a lot at stake here," Hill said. 

Two of three board members decided against the proposed Trumbull Energy Center developer's plans to connect a waterline from Warren to run the proposed Lordstown plant.

"We don't want to bring in an industry where the residents are actually supplementing the industry," Sullivan said, "It ought to be the other way around."

Sullivan would rather see the water come from Niles through the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, where they sell water at a bulk price and serve more people.

However, the developer behind the Trumbull Energy Center project said making any major changes at this point could cause financing to fall through.

Mayor Hill said he was surprised to see the Board of Public Affairs react this way and would like to see the board removed from the village.

"Running on seven part-time people running multi-million dollar businesses...it may be time to look at doing things a little bit differently," he said. 

In Ohio, Villages are not required to have a Board of Public Affairs, only an administrator. In fact, the only two villages in Mahoning and Trumbull Counties that have this kind of board are Lordstown and Beloit.

So far, Hill said he hasn't had backup from council to remove the board.

Hill said his biggest focus right now is getting the Trumbull Energy Center plant up and running.

He hopes the public affairs board will have a change of mind in the coming weeks as council continues to negotiate water rates with Warren.