Sharpsville council members are not happy about a new federal mandate to monitor storm-water runoff, but they reluctantly applied for a permit anyway.

Sharpsville along with Farrell, Sharon and Hermitage are required to comply with the regulations because they all have populations greater than 1,000. The regulations require a permit to discharge storm water, map storm-water discharge points, monitor and sample dry weather discharges and educate citizens on storm-water issues.

Council members, "under protest," hired Winslow Engineering, Hermitage, to put together a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit. Municipalities have until March 10 to apply for either a permit or a waiver. Sharpsville is not eligible for a waiver.

Officials in the municipalities required to file for permits are concerned about the cost to taxpayers. The state has a program to reimburse up to 75 percent of the implementation cost, but the program does not have enough money to honor all the requests.

After a short discussion about making a statement by not filing for the permit, council decided to go through with it.

"We'll go through, but we're protesting all the way," said Councilman Guy Moderelli.

Council also decided to send letters to Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and members of Congress to complain about the mandate.

"If the federal government starts demanding things, they need to come up with some money," said Council Vice President Gary "Gus" Grandy.

Mayor Kenneth Robertson agreed.

"We ought to get the federal government to back off of some of the demands they're putting on us," he said.