Posted: 3:59 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015

Middletown water rates to increase

By Ed Richter

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

Middletown residents and businesses will see a bump in their water rates for 2016 and 2017.

City Council on Tuesday heard the first reading of an ordinance to increase water rates by 7.5 percent and would  cost a typical residential user an additional $2.22 per month. Council will hear the second reading and consider for possible adoption at its Nov. 17 meeting.

City Manager Doug Adkins said city water rates are reviewed on a two-year schedule in consideration of operational, maintenance and capital improvement needs and costs of the water system.

According to the annual Oakwood Water and Sewer Rate Survey for southwest Ohio, the city ranks as the 18th lowest out of the 66 communities surveyed as of March 1, according to a staff report submitted to council from Scott Tadych, public works and utilities director. He said the city consistent ranks in the lower half of the surveyed communities.

The rates in the annual survey is based on the usage of 22,000 gallons or 3,0000 cubic feet during a three-month period.

Tadych said the water rates were last discussed in 2013 with rate increases of 5 percent in 2014 and 2015. An overall rate increase of 7.5 percent was recommended to council.

In addition, Tadych said there was an oversight in the 2013 legislation that left several rate classes unchanged for 2015 and that has been corrected in the new ordinance. He said the affected rate classes included private fire line rates, large user rates and senior citizen rates which should have been increased by 5 percent for 2015 but were not in the previous ordinance.

In a related matter, council also heard the first reading of an ordinance to approve a one-year continuation of the contract with SmartBill, Ltd., of Hebron, to outsource the mailing of city water and sewer bills for 2016.

The city has contracted with SmartBill since 2009 and company will continue to provide the service at the current cost for 2016. The cost to send bills out to the city’s approximately 21,000 customers is $0.13 cents a bill plus postage. The ordinance permits the expenditure of up to $120,000 a year to be equally paid out of the water and sewer funds.

The approximate monthly cost is $8,800 plus an additional $14,000 a year for stock costs such as bills, envelopes, etc. However, the city will absorb the cost of any postal rate increases.

City officials said the company has provided excellent service since 2009. Before contracting with SmartBill in 2009, the city did all of the utility billings.

 

Some day people are going to wake up and do the simple math on their house and realize they have ownership of a house bought 20 years ago, worth 50% below what they paid for, that their taxes are the equivalent of a Mm dollar home in Scottsdale Arizona, and growing, that they get no service, that the city has done absolutely nothing, to grow new business revenue, and they are paying taxes so high while getting nothing in return.

7.5% increase just for the hell of it, no justification, just a money grab. This city drives new businesses and new residents away by these moronic moves, and has the audacity to indicate its goal is to help raise property values, and of course, test scores.

BTW, all new board members ran campaigns against the prep testing that would help the district get out of Continuous Improvement. By eliminating testing prep and the time required, Middletown CSD will never see a performance increase. To her credit, but 20 years is much to long, Katie McNeil realized testing measures performance and correlates to the increase gains in moving up and out of CI.

The only revenue generation the city and council KNOW is to raise taxes and fees on services provided.

Detroit, Springfield, and other cities with high taxes and crime, are examples of the direction Middletown is headed. No one wants to be shaken down on water rates, sewer rates, taxes, school levies, and roads so bad personal rainy day annual repair funds exceed $1,000. for broken tire rods, axles, and shafts.

Wrong move city and council....as usual, again.  

Years ago when in college, I drove a nice little MG convertible. It was the most unreliable car I ever owned. Every time it would break down my father would send me money to pay for repairs. After averaging hundreds of dollars every 2-3 months, he starting saying, hey son, its time to get rid of that car is 'nickel and dime-ing' me to death. The city reminds me of my old MG, nickel and dimeing everyone in town, without efficiencies, without justification, without something gained in return.

The city is like that old MG, always breaking down, and always taking money for something needed elsewhere, to feed the beast at Donham. Bet this increase is to give city employees that 1.5% raise and add more employees, including the 5-6 that work in the useless law department and economic development group.

Gotta take exception to the remark on Katie McNeil. Katie lost because the voters demonstrated they were outraged the levy passed, which she led, without any score improvement. What a waste that levy passing was. Paying for too many worthless MG's in the city with the dimming light barely flickering anymore. 

Know what you mean by nickel and diming you to death. Had a 70 Jag XKE. Beautiful car for the first two years. 72 spoke wire wheels, wooden steering wheel, nice guage package, unique design. Ran fine with little reliability issues. Then, the first thing that went bad was the dam Lucas battery. Lucas electrics in British cars are the absolute worst. The fuses started blowing on the thermostatically controlled radiator fans and the car kept overheating. Didn't know if it would start or not the next day. Tune up on it was $110 bucks which was exhorbatant back then. Specialized labor at the Sports Car Forum in Columbus was high priced.The two carbs had to be rebuilt every so often because they had natural rubber floats in them and they would deteriorate to the tune of $65 bucks a carb......yeah, I know exactly what you went through with the MG. Was it a Midget, MGA, or a regular MG B just for interest?

Dam, I knew I should have bought that first Corvette instead. After I went through all that, I knew I had made the wrong choice. At the time, they both cost approx. the same (for the 327 Vette, although, obviously a 427 would have been much more preferred).

Heard that they were going to not only give city employees a 1% pay raise but also reclassify some positions to a higher pay grade.  This means some will be getting double pay raises.  I am willing to bet that the department directors get their pay grades moved higher.  Guess where the money for the water rate increase is going, to line the pockets of the department directors raises.