By Brandi Watters, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
ALEXANDRIA - Water customers could soon see a jump in their monthly bills as city officials try to keep up with cost increases, state mandates and infrastructure maintenance.
According to Alexandria Mayor Jack Woods, the council is reviewing a proposal to increase the current trash collection rate from $8.05 to $9 per month.
The current rate hasn’t been changed in four years, he said, but the cost of gas and operations has.
In addition to a trash rate hike, city officials want to add a storm water services fee and a hydrant maintenance fee onto each customer’s water bill.
The storm water services fee of $1 per month is meant to help city officials offset the cost of the state-mandated combined sewer overflow, or CSO, separation project.
According to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, or IDEM, 108 Indiana communities, including Alexandria, are using a combined sewer system which funnels rainwater runoff, domestic sewage and industrial waste into the same pipe.
The contents are treated at local water plants, but when the plant is at capacity, overflow occurs, allowing untreated human and industrial waste to enter area water bodies.
IDEM has identified that, for 108 Indiana communities, CSOs are a major polluter.
The overflow found in natural water bodies often include high levels of suspended solids, pathogenic microorganisms, toxic pollutants, oxygen-demanding organic compounds, oil, grease, trash and other pollutants, IDEM said.
Alexandria must separate all storm water pipes from sewer pipes by 2015, Woods said. The total project is expected to cost the city $5 million.
The separation mandate comes at a time when Indiana municipalities are seeing reduced tax revenue as a result of House Bill 1001, which capped property taxes.
Alexandria must cut $610,000 from its budget in the next two years while still managing to fund the mandatory CSO separation project, he said.
The city is currently doing a series of small CSO separations that cost $60,000 to $70,000.
“We’re trying to do a lot of it in-house but we have a lot of CSO that’s going to have to be separated,” Woods said.
When city workers finally get around to Washington Street, Woods said, the CSO separation could cost $1 million for that single section of town.
Charging customers $1 per month on their water bills should help city officials afford the project, he said, adding that “we’re not going to be able to do that on our own.”
In addition to the CSO fee, Woods said the city may add a $1.25 charge to help maintain the city’s hydrants. The city currently pays $80,000 per year to do maintenance on the hydrants, he said.
The hydrant charge is just the latest in a series of decisions supported by the council in order to make the $610,000 in cuts to balance the budget. One of the first budget-saving changes made was the city’s decision to extend city hall hours to 6 p.m. on Monday through Thursday and close the building on Fridays to save on energy costs.
At a recent city council meeting, Clerk-Treasurer Jan Lynch said it was too soon to tell exactly how much money would be saved by this measure.
In all, water bills that once included a trash collection fee of $8.05 will now jump to a total of $11.50 per month for all included fees and rate increases.
The council will vote on the proposal at an upcoming council meeting on either the first or third Monday of December, Woods said.
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Alexandria proposed monthly fees and rate increases
Trash collection increase: $8.05 to $9
New storm water service fee: $1
New hydrant maintenance fee: $1.25
Total change in fees per month: $8.05 to $11.50
