The Wellsville Council Sewage Committee held a meeting this past Thursday, January 6, at Village Hall. Present at the meeting was Sewage Committee Chairman Randy Allmon and Committee Members Susan Haugh & Tony Cataldo. Also attending was Mayor Joe Surace, Councilmen John McMahon & Joe Soldano, Fiscal Officer Dale Davis and United Water's Greg Stewart.
In opening the meeting Allmon announced that the devastating news hinted at the last Council meeting was a misunderstanding on language in correspondence received from GG&J Engineers. Allmon related at first reading “it kind of frightened us” but after talking to the engineering firm everything is okay. Cataldo stated they are waiting on written confirmation from GG&J but it's nothing. Allmon noted everything is good in response to Haugh's question.
We thought it was going to be bad news on the build up of sludge at the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) and the need to do something about it. Other than the drying beds there is no way to treat sewage at the present time. Stewart said that equipment for the new digesters started arriving in late December and hopefully one digester will be operational in February or March. Stewart indicated he believes the plant will be able to squeak by until then. We missed the mark on that one.
Next mentioned was the need to possibly raise sewage rates. Allmon stated he's not in favor of raising rates but we're in hard financial times. A flat $1 additional fee went into effect last year for all customers. That fee is designated for debt service on three different loans the Village is paying for sewer projects.
The Village will be paying United Water $20,503 a month to operate the STP once the new rate goes into effect. United Water pays for the gas and electric to operate the plant. However when the new digesters go into operation the cost of electric will increase an estimated $28,000 per year which will have to be paid by the Village per the contract. Davis stated that in 2010 sewer bills brought in $525,000. The collections are split into two funds. One is for operations (55%) and the other is for updates and improvements. Approximately $25,000 per month goes into the operation fund and over $20,000 of that is paid to United Water. As of November 30, the Sewage Update Fund had a balance of $242,973.
Davis suggested there needs to be more thought put into raising the sewage rates. If it's an across the board raise it could possibly be a hardship on senior citizens and others on fixed income. Both McMahon & Haugh said they weren't in favor of that. If an increase is based on usage then that can be avoided and it won't affect minimum usage residents. It was decided to do more investigation before moving forward with any increases. Committee members want to compare rates with other communities.
Discussion then moved onto sewer improvement projects. Davis reported funding for the STP digester conversion project and the forced main improvement project are lined up. After those are completed the recently released STAG funds will have been used up and will there will be nothing available for the Highland Avenue project as originally planned. Village officials are exploring other funding sources for Highland Avenue. Davis also noted the Highland Avenue project was never on the EPA ok list.
Next item was the sewage bill collections. The Village pays United Water $1,800 a month to handle the billing and collections. The Village sewage clerk was originally brought on to go after delinquent accounts but it has grown into also taking payments from walk-in customers. Soldano mentioned it's a common courtesy given to Village residents who would rather pay their bills in person instead of mailing their payments. Consideration is going on to take over the whole billing and collections process at the Village level. Initial concern is the cost of the machine that prepares and prints the bills. It is estimated to cost $20,000 to $30,000 plus maintenance.
Allmon closed the meeting to go into Executive Session to discuss personnel at the STP. When asked by the newspaper reporter if the Village had any employees working there Allmon responded it was to consider putting people there. All present employees at the STP work for United Water. Allmon has mentioned taking over the operation of the STP at other meetings. No announcement was made following the Executive Session.
The next regular council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 18 at 6 PM at Village Hall.
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