City Council Set to Increase Sewer Rates 30 Percent
By Scott Johnson
LOCK HAVEN – While city property owners will likely see no tax increase for 2020, sewer rates will likely increase by an average of 30 percent next year.
The proposed sewer rate increase would be its first since 2011, said City Manager Greg Wilson at Monday night’s council meeting. The increase, he said, is due to the construction of the city’s new sewer plant. That plant also collects wastewater from many surrounding municipalities that also set their own sewer rates.
Those other municipalities have already increased their rates due to the construction and the city’s rate is currently an average of about $35 lower per quarter that its neighbors, Wilson said.
”By in large, it is because these municipalities and authorities raised rates to address increases in treatment operations, debt service and still provided for line maintenance,” states the proposed 2020 city budget document. “The city delayed raising rates as long as long as possible but has now exhausted all reserve fund balance.”
Wilson said the increase would result in a slight surplus in the sewer budget, which is currently operating in a deficit.”The city will now work on a plan to keep sewer rates more stable, “so they would not be all at once,” Wilson said.
Councilman Richard Conklin said he remembers a previous board decided during the planning of the new plant to “wait until the scope and operational costs were known.” Wilson affirmed that previous decision and added it was a right one as some of the estimates for the costs of the construction and operation were “off substantially, including the electricity costs” are much higher than the estimates.
The proposed rate increase was passed on first reading 6-1 with Mayor Bill Baney voting, “no.” He did not comment before or after his vote. A second and final reading of the increase will likely come at next Monday night’s meeting.
Regarding the budget, council also held a second public hearing on the city’s proposed $13.3-million no-tax-increase budget. There were no comments from the public, city agencies and organizations, and council members during the hearing.
Lastly, Council members Joel Long, Richard Morris and Conklin agreed to be the three council members on a new steering committee for the city Planning Commission. City Planner and Development Coordinator Abbey Roberts said the city would like to have three to five more members of the committee, with meetings at least five times a year, along with three full Planning Commission meetings, and attend some public events. “If you’re not on the steering committee, you (council members) and every resident of the city has a voice on that committee,” Wilson said.
