City Council Reviews Wastewater Utility Rate Ordinance, Approves Cemetery Property Donation
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw City Council Monday reviewed an ordinance that establishes stormwater utility rates and charges. The council will vote on the ordinance on first reading during its March 17 meeting. The city does not currently have a stormwater fee and the fee will assist with paying for the city’s stormwater utility. Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said the user fee is being proposed to pay for costs of escalating stormwater mandates. The utility fee also covers initiatives that are required by Indiana Department of Environmental Management as well as capital improvement costs associated with projects designed to improve drainage and mitigate flooding in Warsaw. “I think we are being responsible by trying to keep this rate down and get this utility established,” Thallemer said. Warsaw has been identified as a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System under the Clean Water Act of 1972 and is required to comply with the Phase II Stormwater Regulation as implemented by IDEM. Stormwater fees are designed to share the costs in a community to cover stormwater expenses that may include program, infrastructure and capital improvement costs. The utility will improve the operation and maintenance of the sewage works. The cost for stormwater charges is being proposed at $2.95 per residential unit per month, and for non-residential real estate properties each business will pay based on the equivalent residential units they have. Residential units apply to single-family homes, apartments or mobile homes. The bill for non-residential real estate would be based on actual measures amount of impervious or “hard surface” that is on the property. It would be billed at a $1.05 base fee plus $1.90 per each 3,500 square feet of impervious surface on a property. Non-residential real estate is any parcel of land or building located within the stormwater utility, which is not used for residential purposes. This includes agricultural, commercial, industrial, church, school, utility and government real estate. The residential units mean a unit value which is equal to the average surface amount of a single-family home within the stormwater utility jurisdiction which is established at 3,500 square feet. Parcels that are entirely unimproved and remain natural undisturbed land will be exempt from the stormwater user fee. Railroads and roads also are exempt. The rates and charges established will be in the monthly wastewater bill. Board of Public Works and Safety will enforce the regulation, collection, rebating or refunding of rates and charges. Sheila McKinley, project manager for Christopher Burke Engineering, and Theresa Sailor, Warsaw stormwater coordinator, went over the proposed stormwater utility rate with the council. McKinley said the cost to establish the stormwater utility is $1.1 million. The public works budget would cover 45 percent; stormwater utility fees would cover 44 percent and wastewater utility fees would cover 10 percent. Mike Lewis, Lewis Salvage, attended the meeting and said he wondered if businesses could receive credits for the stormwater utility rate. McKinley said in order to be a part of the credit program, businesses must show they are going above and beyond current stormwater requirements. The city will need to determine a policy for credits that go along with a list of capital projects the city would like to accomplish for stormwater improvements. The council also approved a donation of 12.14 acres of property from Beyer Wood Farm LLC that will be used for additional burial space for Oakwood Cemetery at the northwest corner of the cemetery.
