Sewer rate hike will have to wait

City council will need to call special meeting for third reading on proposal

Lorain’s Safety Service Director Dan Given was hoping to have a yes or no vote on raising the sewer rates in the city by the end of the June 19 City Council meeting. He’ll have to wait a bit longer. Legislation geared at raising the rate was up for second reading at the meeting, and the administration’s plan was to suspend the rules stipulating a third reading for the ordinance.

Given said this plan was in order to ensure the city would make good on a commitment to advise the Environmental Protection Agency as to whether the funding would be there for

improvements to the system.

“(If the vote does not take place) we’re going to have to call a special call later on in this week, reconvene everybody to come back to go through it,” he said before the council chose not to suspend the rule. “As a council, I think you have enough information to leash your opinion, yes or no, on it.

“But nobody’s asking for more information and I’d really like to get off dead center so we can meet with the appropriate agency and the individuals with them to discuss, after tonight, whether to move forward on certain projects or what their next step is or what our next step is with regards to the vision that council has.”

The current proposal before council presents an increase

mainly to the “readiness to serve charge.” While the average homeowner what is currently a 30 cents a month charge would increase to $6 a month in 2017.

The rate would increase every year until 2026.

If the increase is accepted by council, the average monthly sewer bill would raise from $36.90 to $42.60 for the rest of the year.

These numbers were based on a single family home with a 5/8 inch connection which consumes about 600 cubic feet a month.

The vote to suspend the third reading rule was defeated with council members Mary Springowski, Dennis Flores and Pamela Carter voting against.

Speaking after the meeting, Given said the city will be forced to call a special meeting for council either June 22 or June 26 for the third reading and subsequent vote.

Given said if the final vote comes out against the increase he has been told by the city’s representatives at the agency that the EPA would turn over the case to the U.S. Justice Department.

Councilman Mitchell Fallis said after the meeting that the increase would fund many updates to the system that are mandated by the EPA.

“From my perspective, if we’ve got the U.S. EPA telling us we need to make capital upgrades to our wastewater plant and the sewer lines, you’ve got two consultants telling us how to do that, developed a plan on what we should do and what the financial impact would be, our law director supporting it, we have the chairman of the (American Society of Civil Engineers) saying that wastewater plants in America are rated a D+ and they need to be upgraded,” Fallis said.

Fallis said concerns about the cost had already

been addressed between the first proposal and the current one under consideration.

Alternatively, Springowski said after the meeting she would not vote in favor of the increase because it puts the squeeze on the most vulnerable in the community.

“People that are on fixed incomes widows on Social Security or retired people on a very small pension, their income isn’t going to change,” she said. “Rather than being the protectors of the poor and the elderly in this city, we’re basically preying on them in this instance.”

Springowski said in this situation the EPA is just as guilty for handing down unfunded mandates and threats of fines and penalties if they are not followed.

“I honestly don’t know (where we are going to get the money),” she said. “But we cannot keep taking it from the residents of this city.”