WHAT THE SEWER RATE SHOULD BE

(Note: If you'd like to read and/or comment on this or any other posting on IRBeHEARD, simply click on the "Comments" link at the bottom of the article and follow the prompts. You may comment anonymously if you'd like. Or, you can always e-mail your comments to us at irbeheard@cmdinc.net and we'll post them for you!)

The following was written by IRB resident and former candidate for IRB City Commissioner Don House, outlining what he calculates the sewer rate to be. This was sent to the City Clerk and forwarded to all members of the commission.

I hate people who criticize but offer no solutions. So even though Monday morning quarterbacking is the #1 sport in America, here is my plan for the sewer rates.

The sewer rate is basically composed of 5 parts. Maintenance, usage, overhead, special projects, and reserve funding.

Part 1. City budget indicates this figure is approx $300,000 per year. This figure should be equally distributed over all the water connections.

Part 2. The county charges the city a rate of $2.82/1,000 gallons for sewer. This is approx 70% of the water charge of $4.16/1,000 gallons. Customer's bills should reflect a charge of 70% times their actual water usage. (I know this has no allowance for lawn watering or car washing but with reclaimed water available this should encourage conservation).

Part 3. A reasonable charge for annual bookkeeping, say $18,000, should be equally distributed over all the water connections.

Part 4. The five year plan shows projects averaging about $100,000 each year for the next 5 years. This should be equally distributed over all the water connections.

Part 5. The city should determine a figure to be held in reserve, say $250,000, and a timetable to reach it, say 5 years, for $50,000 a year and this should be equally distributed over all the water connections.

So assuming 3,000 water connections in the city a monthly sewer bill would be:

Part 1
$300,000/3,000/12=$ 8.34 a month

Part 3
$18,000/3,000/12=$ .50 a month

Part 4
$100,000/3,000/12=$ 2.78 a month

Part 5
$50,000/3,000/12=$ 1.39 a month

Therefore a sewer bill would be $13.01 plus 70% of the water usage charge on your water bill.

This non-political approach to billing would be fair and reflect real costs. Future billing changes would be more in line with real needs. I know the plan needs some fine tuning as I did it with no help from anyone in the city and the numbers may not be exactly right. But this is only 15 minutes work and it did not cost the city $30,000.

Thank you for reading this.

Don House
Beach Trail/IRB