DEAR WAYNEDALE READERS
I hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday.
We work hard each day in city government to provide you with the best possible services. At times, it’s necessary to explore different financing options for various needed projects. One of those necessities is our sewer utility. Recently, the City began discussing a sanitary sewer rate increase proposal. Excellent sewer service is vital to a healthy, growing community. We must continue to make investments to promote job, residential and business growth.
Our proposal calls for sewer rates to increase by no more than 25%. The proposal has to be approved by the Board of Public Works and City Council. Those bodies will discuss this issue through December and January. If approved, the new rates would become effective in February or March.
What does this mean for you? A small residential user currently pays $11.93 per month. With the increase, that home would be paying approximately $3 more per month. A family residential home using 10 units of water a month currently pays $21.63 per month. With the increase, that home would be paying around $5 more per month.
Sewer rates have not been raised since 2001. The last rate increase resulted in over $100 million in sanitary sewer system improvements and the rehabilitation of more than 43 miles of sewer lines to name a few.
An increase would allow the City to invest in high value combined sewer system projects, continue to invest in pipeline and treatment system rehabilitation work, invest in sanitary sewer interceptors to create capacity for future growth and economic development, and issue a bond for $25-$30 million to construct major projects.
Several near term projects include more than $12 million for future combined sewer system projects. Nearly $9 million is necessary for improvements at the Water Pollution Control Plant. Sewer pipeline projects will total $7.5 million, and the process to begin building separate sanitary sewer capacity will cost $5 million.
The City also faces an unfunded mandate from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce the number of combined sewer overflow occurrences. We are working with the U.S.
Department of Justice on a consent decree to determine how much money we will need to invest to reduce combined sewer overflows and improve overall water quality.
Our current plan calls for an investment of $250 million over 25 years. Consent decree compliance will be the largest locally funded infrastructure investment in the City’s history.
We will continue to provide updates as we work together to find solutions to difficult challenges in our community.
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