MENTONE – Details of how Mentone wants to implement a sewer rate increase were discussed at the Mentone Town Council Wednesday.
Town attorney Andrew Grossnickle said for a sewer rate to happen, the council is required to hold two meetings about the rate raise. The first meeting would be an introduction of an ordinance about the raising of the rate. The second meeting would have to be a public hearing. After the public hearing, the council could vote on whether they wanted to increase the sewer rate or not.
Grossnickle said he had a draft of the updated sewer rate ordinance. As he is finalizing the draft, he said it’s possible to introduce the ordinance in May and have a public hearing in June.
He said what he needed to know, as far as the ordinance went, is whether the council wants to increase the rate all at once or break up the increase over time.
In February, Baker Tilly recommended to increase the rates by 41.18%.
If the sewer rates increase by 41.18%, the approximate average residential monthly bill would be $63.37. The current 4,000-gallon bill is $44.89. The change in the average monthly residential bill would be $18.48.
Councilwoman Shelly Krueger said she liked the idea of breaking the increase up over time. Councilman Tim Croy said he liked the idea of doing it all at once, possibly in the summer when people are generally paying less for their utilities and they’re not running into holidays like Christmas at the beginning of the year. Council President Jill Gross was not at the meeting.
Grossnickle said he could write up drafts of the ordinance with both scenarios and the council could vote on it.
Grossnickle also said if there was any other language the council wanted to update to let him know.
Clerk-Treasurer Amanda Yaprak brought up the hookup fee. Utilities Superintendent Josh Shepherd said the language was vague. The fee was dependant on how much resources and work was needed to hook up the utilities.
Shepherd said he thought there should be an application process added before hookup “that way we can make sure (hookup) is feasible” and residents would have an idea of how much it would cost to hook up to town utilities.
Grossnickle said there could be a flat rate hookup fee, but that may not be an option. Shepherd said Mentone was “unique” because the town was on a septic tank system.
Grossnickle suggested he and Shepherd sit down and talk about the hookup fee for the ordinance.
Later in the meeting, Town Marshal Keaton Schopf brought up compensation for the work he has been doing.
He said he is currently being paid for 80 hours biweekly. He was asking to be paid for 100 hours instead of 80 for the same time period. He asked if the extra hours could be applied in about mid-June once he’s completed some training he’s looking to attend, at least until the town gets a second person into the department. From Jan. 1 to April 5, he has 811 hours worked. He has 50 hours of compensation time worked up because of all the hours he has worked.
Krueger asked if the 100 hours would cover what he’s working. Schopf said he’s working more than that.
Krueger said Schopf shouldn’t work for free. Croy asked if the town could take what they would be paying a deputy and use that to pay Schopf. Grossnickle said it wasn’t a budgetary issue.
Grossnickle said since Schopf was salary, they would have to modify the salary ordinance. Croy said they will look into that. Grossnickle said he could work on the ordinance.
In other business, the council:
• Will have a public meeting at 7 p.m. April 29 about the Fire Control Board purchasing a fire truck.
• Heard Shepherd spoke with a representative from the railroad company about the crossing on Ind. 19. He was told the representative would talk to someone to see if work could be done, but Shepherd didn’t know if anything would happen.
Krueger said she could possibly send another email to the railroad company to see if that does anything.
• Heard Yaprak believes The Troyer Group will have a design rendering for the Mentzer Park upgrade project for the council to approve in the near future.
• Heard the Mentone Youth League parade is 9 a.m. April 27, starting at Mentone Elementary School.
• Heard Grossnickle is still working on an unsafe building ordinance.
• Heard Yaprak went to a training seminar with Lake City Bank about best practices to prevent bank fraud.