Most Shelby residents will see higher sewer bills in the near future when, after much discussion, Shelby City Council passed an ordinance increasing the sanitary sewer capital improvements surcharge by 51 percent. Residential, commercial and industrial customers will see an increase in their rates shown on their February 2015 bills, but council voted to freeze the rates of senior citizen residential customers at $3.50.
According to amended ordinance 17-2014, currently there is an administrative surcharge in effect from Aug. 1, 2014 through Dec. 31, 2014. Council voted to extend that surcharge for the purpose of financing of debt to remodel the wastewater treatment plant and also capital expenditures for equipment and maintenance of the plant. Residential customers’ bills will increase to $7.67 per month, commercial customers will increase to $9.18 per month and industrial customers will increase to $10.70 per month.
The freeze of senior citizen residential customers’ bills at $3.50 came at the request of Councilmember Harold Shasky, who initially requested the bills of senior citizen residential customers be reduced to $0 per month.
“I might catch a little heat for that from the residents but I think most of our residents will be compassionate towards the senior citizens and disability customers,” said Shasky.
The suggestion to freeze the rates for senior citizen residential customers rather than reduce rates to $0 came from Councilmember Pat Carlisle, noting she was not in favor of Shasky’s original amendment because she felt it excused their rates too far. Councilmember Steve Schag agreed with Carlisle’s point.
“I think we as a city have always taken a view of trying to make capital improvement charges and our rates to be sensitive to the folks we’re dealing with,” said Schag. “There are probably some single-parent households that have children, and dollar-for-dollar I think they are struggling just as much and we are asking them to pitch in on this capital improvement.
“My concern comes from carving out a special group and saying this group will not have to pay anything, and we put it on the other groups to take up for that lack of capital,” Schag continued. “I would like to think there is a sense of pride that the folks in this senior citizen residential classification would like to have something of a part in this capital improvement that will benefit them and their children and grandchildren down through the years.”
Council voted to meet in a committee of the whole session to adjust the rates for each category of ratepayer. Using a spreadsheet, Deputy Director of Public Service John Ensman explained the bottom-line figure needed to make the much-needed improvements at the wastewater treatment plant was $410,518.56. After freezing the senior citizen residential rate at $3.50, each of the other rates were adjusted accordingly to meet the bottom line.
Shelby Mayor Marilyn John explained the $410,518.56 would be collected for a maximum of 20 years to repay a loan from the Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA), which has a one percent interest rate. She stated there is a window of opportunity for the city to apply to OWDA for this loan, and the window of opportunity closes Oct. 31.
“If we don’t pass legislation that has enough money to make the first payment, we do have to pass up this loan at this time and it’s not open again until next year,” said John. “You submit the nomination form before the end of August, and then you have until the end of October to show that you can in fact pay the loan back.”
Councilmember Garland Gates suggested a tiered rate to make the increased surcharge more palatable to the citizens of Shelby, however Finance Director Bob Lafferty noted a tiered rate would not be sufficient.
“The loan payment will be constant throughout the whole loan, so the first year is going to be as much as the 20th year,” said Lafferty. “If we tier it we won’t have enough money for the first payment.”
As heavy rainfall beat down on the roof of the Shelby Justice Center, Carlisle pointed out “Mother Nature” was proving at that moment the need for passing the amended ordinance.
“That’s one of our problems is rainwater getting into the sanitary system,” she explained. “There is infiltration in the entire city, which is one of the main reasons we need to do an improvement at the wastewater treatment plant. I do not want to wait another year to go through this process; I really think we need to move on this so that we can submit our revenue stream by the end of this month.”
After coming out of the committee of the whole, council voted to accept the amended rates that would freeze the rate for the senior citizen residential customers. Only Councilmember Nathan Martin voted against these amendments, though he voted in favor of passing the amended ordinance.
“The reason we came about to say we’re going to do 51 percent increase across the board is because there are people and there are businesses and industries in every single one of these categories that are struggling right now,” said Martin. “I understand people in senior citizen residential have less means than those perhaps in others; that’s why their rate is significantly less than the others. I’m opposed to doing further tinkering of these, I think we have to have a united front and say these are improvements that have to be done within our city. We all understand this is something that needs to be done.”
Councilmembers Shasky and Gates each voted against the eventual passing of the amended ordinance.
