There is an important public meeting on Wednesday, June 9, at the city hall to discuss the new sewer and water rates. I have been covering this issue for three years attending the city council meetings, and have reported on the process they have taken to get to this point during those three years. There has been ample time to ask questions and discuss with the city council members your concerns. The meeting on Wednesday, June 9, will be another opportunity to express your opinion and ask questions.

The city council in this town addressed the Water and Sewage issues in this town because the old systems were 60 plus years old and were failing. They did receive grants for a substantial amount of the cost of the projects. Those grants also require that city pay its share of the project per the agreed amount. The grants received were nine million dollars. It is also a law that water and sewer must pay for themselves in Big Sandy. Further grants could be obtained for specific projects but not for debt reduction on older projects.

Everyone should have received a letter explaining the amount of increase in the sewer rate at $3.25 per month, resulting in a proposed base rate of $63.15 per month for residential and commercial users, which included 5,000 gallons of water. Money collected for Big Sandy's sewer has not been able to pay for itself. Therefore the small increase was determined to be necessary.

The letter also explained the new water ordinance. There is no increase to the base. However, lot owners who are currently connected to the water will be charged an inactive user rate of $14.00 per month and the inactive cost for sewer is $38.00, which makes the total inactive cost $52 per month. "Those owners have an existing structure on the property or can be developed. Two, they have a curb box and or meter located on the property by which the property is served.....and can be connected to the Water System. " The main reason for this is to help those who are on limited monthly income and can not afford an increase for their water.

Jon Sheehy has been working on this complicated issue since he has been on the city council for over three years. Mayor Schwarbzch said it's complicated because the most significant change includes more properties in the debt structure for all the new infrastructure that has been put in the town. Hence, it's fairer for everybody who lives in the community. The idea is twofold: as people tear down old stuff, you would see larger annual increases for base rate for fewer and fewer payors every time a property goes down. Sheehy said, "our debt load has not increased. It is the same debt pa. Went we just have fewer and fewer people paying it. Every year we've gotten a shorter list of payers. We are trying to be fair, and we have folks on a fixed income, so it is already tight."

According to Mayor Schwazbach, "Jon has done most of the work. He has done a ton of research. We don't want to raise rates on anybody, but water and sewer have to support themselves. We can't use the general fund we get from taxes to pay for it. They have to support themselves and be self-sufficient. We have a significant debt to redo the sewer and water systems.'

Jon concluded, "Our old water ordinances hadn't been updated for 70 years. So we needed to rewrite our ordinances, which we spent sometimes evaluated. Mayor Schwarzbach said, "We spent a lot of time with attorneys. We had to make sure the water and sewer were stubbed out to them. Property that has had services already on them is going to be added. We wanted to make it fair, so we took the time to do due diligence. (This was all done)--the water and sewer started failing at the same time. During the last to 10-12 years."

Big Sandy has a total monthly debt of $13,289 for sewer debt and $4,789 for water debt. They are required by law to build reserves as well.

The nice thing now is it's all new it should be good for 50 years.