About 22 Big Sandy residents attended the public meeting.
The Big Sandy City Council town meeting to discuss water and sewer rates was held in the large room in the back of City Hall. Approximately 30 residents were in attendance. Mayor Shaud Shcwarzbach thank them for coming and said he wished this many people would show up for every city council meeting.
The floor was opened for comment with the stipulation that comments be kept to five minutes. No one talked for five minutes but did talk several times during the time. Questions were asked, and I hope to respond here with the information given.
Two resolutions were being considered: Resolution 2021-17:A resolution to modify the basis on which the service charges are imposed on properties served by the Municipal sewer system and to increase the rates for the users of the Municipal sewer system; and Resolution 2021-18: A resolution to modify the basis on which water charges are imposed on properties served by the town of Big Sandy system.
Jon Sheehy opened the meeting with some background information. They have been working on this issue for three years, researching the best way to fix the problem, looking at other communities and legal issues, hoping to find the fairest solution. Current rates are difficult for some fixed-income individuals as it is. When the rates were first determined, it was based on the number of households in Big Sandy. We have lost paying customers since that time. However, currently, there has been a constant shortfall in funds in the sewer coffers because of the loss of paying residence. By law sewer and water must pay for itself.
The total loan balances remaining are $3,217,962, and we have to pay $14,775 a mmonth, which is roughly 47% of revenues with fewer people to pay the debt. The total project costs for upgrades to our failing water and sewage infrastructure were $8,848,000.
Someone asked about the water supply and the impact on a new pool compared to the current system. Shaud told them that the existing pool has leaks under it, so when the funds for a new pool are raised, that pool would be more efficient than what we have now.
At one point, the group was informed about Big Sandy's water supply in the future. We will be keeping our current system up to speed, so we don't have to depend on only one water source.
The question everyone was discussing is what
is fair? What is the best to pay for the shortfall in payments for the debt of the infrastructure built, usage, or property owners? A good discussion took place, arguing that it was only fair that those using the system should help pay for the increase. That would mean that everyone would need to pay a little more than $9.00 more on the base, which means on top of the $3.00 already increased, the base would be paying approximately $13.00 more a month. Currently, the base is $118 if you own property and are an active user which would increase that to $127 per month.
The other approach discussed, and presented by the city council, was to accept that the infrastructure built for the lot was for the property owners' benefit. Therefore the property owners, about 50 inactive properties, should pay for the infrastructure for their lots even though they are currently not using them. Which means they are now not paying for anything on those inactive lots. To this point in time, it was solely dependent on those using the system. The argument is it was built for the benefit of the owners and it increases the lot value by two to three times over those lots with no stub outs. The cost to the owners will be $52 per lot per month to help pay for the infrastructure built.
Both arguments were defended well.
In the end, it was a unanimous vote of the city council members to adopt both new policies they had worked on for three years. Sewer increases by $3.25 for active users, and the new fee for inactive properties is $14 for water and $38 for sewer. Wendy Kleinsasser wrote a clearer description if the resolutions had not passed. "For active users: The current base for sewer is $59.90, beginning with the July billing it will increase to $63.15. If the resolutions hadn't passed it would go up $9.00, making the sewer rate $72.15. Water base rate is $46.00, with a charge of $3.00 per 1000 gallons if you use more than 4,000 gallons. That rate would go up to $55.00. The combined water and sewer rate would have been $127.15. The council would have had to look at an annual increases had the resolutions not passed."
