Sewer Costs Push New Town Water Bills to $100
By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
May 10, 2013
The Town of Cape Charles has the most modern sewage treatment plant on the Eastern Shore.
It is also the most expensive.
Town Manager Heather Arcos broke the news at a Town Council budget work session last night: Now that the new plant is in operation, the cost for sewage treatment is skyrocketing, and the minimum monthly sewer charge of $35.45 could increase to $64.44.
That would be an increase of 82 percent in one year.
Town Council didn’t like that number, and decided to defer some improvements and maintenance to cut costs by $85,000. Purchase of a grinder will be postponed, as will manhole repairs and engineering studies for pump stations.
Council also axed a $10,000 request from Chairman Bob Panek to fund his Public Service Authority that hopes to provide sewerage to properties on Highway 13 and the road to Cheriton.
Even with the cuts, sewer bills are still expected to increase by $18, which is a 51 percent increase over current rates.
The reason for the huge increase is because the Town borrowed $5 million for the new treatment plant and is required to pay down the loan by $289,000 every year for 20 years.
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A year ago, the Town postponed the huge fee increase by paying $172,500 of the debt service out of reserve funds.
Town Treasurer Kim Coates, who assumed her job shortly after last year’s budget took effect, informed Council last night that the Town’s auditor has noted that the reserves should have been saved for a “real emergency.”
Council member Frank Wendell asked Town Manager Arcos if it was known that rates would go up when they were planning to build the new treatment plant. “Yes, we knew it was going to be expensive, but we did come in under budget,” Arcos replied.
What Town residents call their “water bill” actually includes three components: water, sewer, and trash collection.
Town staff proposes to cut the minimum monthly water charge from $39.55 to $34.42.
Trash pickup would be reduced from $14 to $12.
The sewer charge would increase from $35.45 to about $53.45.
That means a resident’s minimum monthly utility bill would be about $99.87.
The current minimum monthly charge is $89, so the increase would be about $11, or 12 percent.
The new rate will take effect July 1.
A public hearing on the proposed budget including utility rates will be Thursday, May 30. Residents will have three minutes to address Town Council.
The one thing in the story that jumped out at me was cutting the $10K to fund the PSA. My understanding is that our plant has greater capacity than we use. Getting more customers will be a critical source of revenue to help ease the burden on the rest of us. Spending a little to further the effort to serve more properties would seem to be very worthwhile.
Pete: You think it is a good idea to bring the “pipe” out to the highway? That would bring more business to this end of the county. There goes Rayfield’s when a big chain drugstore comes here. Never mind that this is a family-run business.
Hmmm, next we will have a hotel . . . whoops, there goes the B & B’s. Then maybe another strip mall. Whoops, there goes all of the little shops in town.
I lived in Onancock when they enlarged 4 Corner Plaza and it KILLED the town of Onancock for many, many years. Is this what you want for Cape Charles?
Make no mistake — the citizens of Cheritan do not want our sewer pipe and they will fight it. The guy that is on the PSA board fighting for this is so used to spending everyone else’s money. If he thinks it is such a good idea, tell him to throw in the $10,000! Tell him to put HIS money where his mouth is. Sounds like the town built this big sewer plant before they figured out how they would pay for it. AS USUAL
In total agreement with Deborah. The focus should be drawing business FROM Highway 13 into the Town of Cape Charles, not importing additional caca!
I agree with Deborah. They built the Cape Charles sewer plant considerably larger than it needs to be, so the town now gets to pay for more capacity than they need. If you have been paying attention to county politics and the PSA they are getting ready to do the same thing on the county scale by building the “southern node” approximately 5 times bigger than it needs to be. The same people are behind both plans. Guess who is going to pay for it? Your tax dollars at work.
Seems like they did the same thing with the jail, too.
FTA:”and decided to defer some improvements and maintenance to cut costs by $85,000. Purchase of a grinder will be postponed, as will manhole repairs and engineering studies for pump stations.”
Manhole NOT repaired + slip and fall acciddent = large payout by Town from lawsuit.
Pump station failure = citizen distress & additional expenditures to replace what should have been a priority fix.
Grinder not purchased + continued root growth = sidewalk impact requiring $$ repair.
But tell me again how much is being spent on the new library?
And the Park bathrooms?( I still contend that the best place for the Park bathrooms would have been the Municipal Offices/Community center at the OSC…..great place for Hoops, too!!)
IF the town had gone with a community center the library could have been there too! Instead they used well hook-up monies and bought the bank, thus making a private building public. It would be nice if the town would address our icky water too.
The town also said they would replace the basketball court, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen either.
NOW they are scrambling trying to figure out how to make ends meet. I ask this: would anyone buy a steak covered with fat? TRIM THE FAT. More to come tomorrow night at the town meeting. Fireworks maybe?
Mrs. Bender, I have been singing that song since the start of this issue. A multi-purpose building would have served the Community, and allowed the Mason Avenue business district to have greater appeal by increasing the amount of ‘commecial ventures; thereby pulling more visitors from Rt. 13 as Mr. Kelly indicated would be better for the Town.
Mike,
Sure wish you could come to meetings
We need all the help we can get.
When we speak out at meetings they barely listen or have conversations amongst themselves.
Deb
“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Massachusetts may have traded their Liberty for perceived safety(how’s that working out for ya’, MA??) but I KNOW that Virginians did not forget these words………