With delinquencies still plaguing the department Water and Sewer Commissioner Guy Russo convened a special meeting of the WPCA (Water Pollution Control Authority) Thursday to vote on a request to conduct a hearing for a sewer usage rate increase.
According to Russo's memo, the rate increase will amount to a 12% increase across the board for all customers. The average family would see an increase of about $13 in each semi-annual sewer bill.
The rate hearing is for Monday November 30 at 5:15 PM at the Water and Sewer Department.
In addition the board voted to request a transfer of $30,000 from the Water Fund Balance to cover budget shortfalls due to delinquencies. In addition, the WPCA voted on budget reductions for the department in the coming year, and a request to the Common Council to approve water and sewer shutoffs for severely delinquent accounts.
There is a certain irony to the fact that the water department facility was used to distribute rain barrels so people could conserve water use and now we will higher rates, in part, because we are not using as much water.
ReplyDeletedont buy it, compare their current budget to their budget 5 and 10 years ago. It was allot smaller and people were using more water. They have built an empire with the very best trucks and equipment and the Common Council has empowered them every step of the way !!!!
ReplyDeleteAs one of the enablers, I am not sure that I am doing the right thing to approve the Water & Sewer budgets, which have been both reduced over 10% since the Sewer Department’s cash flow crisis.
ReplyDeleteStill, there is a rationale behind my support. First, what is the value of our Water & Sewer infrastructure, especially it’s replacement cost. I have been asking for years now, and I still cannot get an answer. I think that the value is at least $300 Million. The average life of this asset is less than 100 years which means that we should be putting $3 Million per year in capital improvement to maintain the current system. Most of this system is below ground, so neither you nor I can tell how well we are keeping up with the maintenance. If the current water project on Main Street is any indication, I would hold onto my wallet.
One major expense is that the desired plan for Middletown’s waste treatment will cost $25 Million to decommission the River Road Waste Treatment facility, and build the piping to join the Mattabasset Regional Facility. The City will have to pay 50% of that cost, and there is a very expensive upgrade to the Mattabasset Regional Facility that will have to be funded by your Sewer fees. Personally, I don’t think that we have been keeping up with the maintenance so we may be headed for more water main breaks and lots of other problems that “no one could have foreseen”.
If that does not illustrate my fear about why I want to see better preservation of our current assets, let me pose this question. Do you think that our 200 miles of local roads is being properly maintained? What are those roads worth? Asphalt roads have an asset life of much less than underground water & sewer pipes. Just as gasoline costs have been rising, so has the cost of asphalt – it is now more than $70 per ton. How much should we be spending each year to keep our roads properly maintained? How much should we be spending to keep our Park System properly maintained? How much should we be spending to keep our Public Schools properly maintained?
Your elected officials have a lot of hard decisions to make and not the best information to base their decisions on. I thank the Eye for helping to get these issues out to the Public and all the good people of Middletown that are working to get the critical information we all need to make the tough decisions to keep Middletown functioning.
Anon. 7:26 should not be surprised.This was predicted years ago.Conservation of any taxed asset will mean MORE taxes for us.Remember the old saying-"No good deed goes unpunished." It's the price we will have to pay for going green. The greener we go, the less green we will have. That's irony.
ReplyDeleteNOBO,
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I didn't say I was surprised or that I was opposed to "green" efforts or that conservation wouldn't cost something. I merely said it was ironic. Nothing more.
Perhaps I missed something... I just recieved my water bill and compared it to the last bill, there was a rate increase already applied. How many increases do we need? I have seen my bills go up and up yet my water use remains the same. However, the service does not change. Looking at the budget I noticed the excessive amount spent on overtime and that when an employee is on call they recieve extra pay for that time.
ReplyDeleteBeing on call is not a joy, but it is part of the job description. Rather than asking for permission to shut service off (by the way water is a need not a luxiary) and increase rates maybe it's time to reevaluate the departments' spending practices and make changes there. Stop making the residents foot the bill for other people's overspending and mismanagement.