Wastewater revisions approved

Warsaw City Council on Monday approved revisions to the wastewater rate changes on second reading, the 2018 budget with changes to the non-profit requests on first reading, and the 2018 salary ordinances with a preliminary extra bump in the salaries for the clerk-treasurer’s office.

Mayor Joe Thallemer said the wastewater rate changes were approved on first reading in September.

“There will be three readings, three votes. That was just the introduction to get it out there and then to take your comments. We came back and we put the amendments in, so we’ll vote on the second reading, on the amended version, and then there will still be a final reading” Oct. 16, Thallemer said.





The city has had three neighborhood meetings on the rate changes so far. The last neighborhood meeting is at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Pete Thorn building and is open to the public.

Jeff Rowe, Umbaugh & Associates, reviewed the revisions to the ordinance.

The revisions are based on comments from council, and further discussion with the mayor and the city, he said.

The first change is under Section 78-154 Concession in Non-Metered and Metered Domestic Rates and Charges.

“It deals with the concession rate that is based on poverty income levels. As you know, currently how it works is, every year in January folks may apply for the concession rate. So they have to provide certain documentations, present that to the city annually, in order to take advantage of the concession rate,” Rowe said.

The draft ordinance established the  fixed income level at $19,380, but officials decided to instead tie it to U.S. Federal Poverty Guidelines so that every year as the poverty rate changes, so does the ordinance income level.

The second change was a section “D” was added under Section 78-156 Base Charge.

“(It) better clarifies, I think, how billing is handled for multi-dwelling units and by multi-dwelling units, as an example, we’re talking about entities such as mobile homes, mobile home courts, apartments, housekeeping rooms such as hotels and that kind of thing,” Rowe said.

“In order to be consistent with how the city has historically handled multi-units, which is to bill the apartment complex based on each unit, what we did was clarify so that under the new billing procedure, which is based on flow rate, plus a base fee, the base fee would be billed in accordance with the number of units,” he said.

As an example, he said an apartment complex with 10 units would pay a base fee based on a 5/8”-3/4” meter size times the number of units. So the base fee for those 10 units would be $120 (10 times $12 each) plus the amount of flow the apartment complex uses for that month.

There was some discussion about eliminating a line from 78-156 (B) regarding appeals but it was decided to keep that line in the ordinance for now.

Landlord Chad Zartman also questioned his costs, but Thallemer pointed out that most of Zartman’s properties will be paying less under the new rate schedule than the old one.

The amended wastewater rate changes were approved on second reading by a vote of 6-1, with Councilman Ron Shoemaker opposed. The final reading and public hearing will be Oct. 16.

Randy Rompola, with Barnes & Thornburg, presented the ordinance for the sewage works bond ordinance. It was for the first reading, with the final reading scheduled for Oct. 16. The city is anticipating the bonds will be sold to the State Revolving Fund program.

The move, Rompola said, will help the city get the best interest rate.

The ordinance provides for bonds in an amount not to exceed $10.5 million at an interest rate of up to 5 percent. The bond maturity is set at not to exceed 20 years, but it could be extended to 35 years, he said.

The council approved the bond ordinance on first reading by a vote of 6-1, with Shoemaker again opposed.

During the first reading of the 2018 budget, Thallemer said the city’s current tax rate is $1.2741. With the budget being proposed for 2018, “we’re looking at a rate at $1.350. That is under the maximum levy.” He also said that could be reduced with “line 2” cuts and line 1 insurance cuts to keep the tax rate down as low as possible.

Council President Mike Klondaris presented his suggestions for non-profit budget requests, including: Kosciusko Community Senior Services, $17,500; Beaman Home, $5,000; Animal Welfare league, $20,000; City County Athletic Complex, $25,000, down from $31,000 given in 2017 and requested for 2018; KABS, $19,055, and KABS capital improvement match, $10,000; Warsaw Community Development Corp., $18,000; Warsaw Housing Authority, $35,000; Housing Opportunities of Warsaw, $7,000; and Kosciusko County Lakes and Streams, $15,000.

Councilman Jerry Frush suggested CCAC’s request be lowered even further to $20,000 because it’s supposed to be self-sustaining.

Non-profits will be invited to the Oct. 16 meeting if they want to discuss their requests further.

Human Resources Director Jennifer Whitaker presented the 2018 general and fire territory salary ordinances, with potential 3 percent salary increases built into them.

During discussion of the ordinances, Clerk-Treasurer Lynne Christiansen requested her staff be given 5 to 7 percent increases for 2018 because her office took over the billing for the wastewater department in May. As an elected official, Christiansen has a right by state statute to request a raise for her department. She had budgeted the increases for 2018.

The council discussed job descriptions and fairness, but members of the wage committee – Jeff Grose, Cindy Dobbins and Jack Wilhite – weren’t keen on providing the increase despite the increased responsibilities.

In the end, Christiansen got enough votes from councilmen for a preliminary increase of 5 percent, but she must go before the wage committee to justify the increase. The council will then give a final vote on Oct. 16. council could decrease the request but may not raise it more than 5 percent.

The council approved all the salary ordinances with all the changes requested. Deadline to approve the budget and salary ordinances is Nov. 1.

The council also approved an amendment to the municipal code on sexually oriented businesses on first reading. The plan commission approved recommending to the council that it be approved. There were no opponents to the ordinance. The second reading will be Oct. 16.