Posted: 6:25 p.m. Friday, June 5, 2015

GOVERNMENT SPENDING

Middletown sewer bills going up this fall

By Ed Richter

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

Middletown sewer rates will be going up 10 percent as early as Sept. 1 to begin generating revenue to address the city’s sewer issues.

During a work session last week, City Council, reached a consensus that a 10 percent rate increase was needed in order to pay for the upgrade city officials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agree upon.

City officials will be preparing legislation to raise the sewer rates at an upcoming council meeting.

More than 770 communities in the nation have or are negotiating with the U.S. EPA to address the overflows for combined sewer systems. The federal agency first started with larger cities, like Chicago, Cleveland and Cincinnati, which will spend billions of dollars in the coming decades to reach compliance.

The issue locally remains under negotiation between the city and the EPA. The cost is projected in a range of $80 million to $250 million over a 20- to 25-year period, said Scott Tadych, city director of public works and utilities.

In addition, the city will also face more than $200 million for major rehabilitation to the sewer collection system and the wastewater treatment plant over the same period of time, he said.

“Funding options for the these improvements are limited mostly to user fees, therefore it is necessary to raise sewer rates accordingly dependent upon the final solution,” Tadych said. “Small rate increases now will hopefully minimize the need for large rate increases in the future.”

Council members have spent the past several months trying to find a way to cause the least pain on ratepayers.

City Manager Doug Adkins said it was a matter of not if, but when the rates needed to be raised.

During a work session following Tuesday’s council meeting, Mayor Larry Mulligan said he was comfortable with a 10 percent rate increase.

Other council members agreed and Councilman Dan Picard agreed, but felt the city should raise the rate more than the proposed 10 percent.

“If we have the opportunity, let’s do it,” Picard said. “We’re only talking about a few bucks a month.”

City officials said based on 1,000 cubic feet of sewer usage, a rate payer will see their monthly charge go up $2 a month or from $21.10 to $23.10 a month. The average family of four in Middletown uses about 1,000 cubic feet a month.

There will be no increase in the city’s water rate at this time. The current water rate is $13.63 for using 1,000 cubic feet a month, which is about 22,500 gallons.

As of Dec. 31, 2014, Middletown has 19,500 accounts however, the average delinquency rate is 14 percent.

Posted: 7:00 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015

MIDDLETOWN

Middletown utility bills may be going up

By Ed Richter

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

Residents may soon pay a 10 percent surcharge to base sanitary sewer rates as part of the city’s efforts to cover the costs of future sewer infrastructure improvements.

City Council on Tuesday heard the first reading of the ordinance that will raise sewer bills by about $2.11 a month for a typical residential user, said City Manager Doug Adkins.

He said sewer bills are reviewed by council every few years after reviewing the operational, maintenance and capital improvement needs for the city’s sanitary sewer system. Council last discussed rates in 2013 that resulted in a 10 percent rate increase on Jan. 1, 2014, he said.

If council approves the ordinance at its next meeting on Sept. 15, it would take effect 30 days later on Oct. 15 and the surcharge will be reflected as a separate line item on the November city utilities bill, Adkins said.

The surcharge is expected to generate about $850,000 a year, he said.

Middletown ranks 25th of the 63 community sewer systems in the Miami Valley that are surveyed annually by the city of Oakwood Finance Department. Oakwood surveys the average cost for using 22,500 gallons of water in a three month period and the current ranking was based on rates effective as of March 1. The average cost for Middletown residents currently using 22,500 gallons in a three month period is $122.25.

Adkins said that major capital improvements over the next 25 years will be needed for the city’s aging combined sanitary and stormwater sewage system.

The city’s lines get overloaded with rain water and sewage overflows at several points along the Great Miami River, Adkins said. In addition, to addressing the overflow issues, extensive rehabilitation of the city’s sewer system, which nearly half of the system is 50 years or older, and major improvements at the city’s wastewater treatment plant where most of its components were installed in the 1950s.

Adkins said the cost to address the overflows is estimated between $80 and $250 million; to repair and rehabilitate the sewer system will cost an estimated $142 million; and to make the needed improvements at the wastewater treatment plant is estimated at $68 million.