By Brandi Watters, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
CHESTERFIELD — Another increase will soon hit town sewer bills, and town officials say the hike is unavoidable.
The proposed increase will take the monthly minimum sewer bill of $48.96 to $65.79, clerk-treasurer Candi Bennett said.
The hike is in response to Anderson’s sewer hike that brought Chesterfield’s waste treatment rate from $1.11 per 1,000 gallons to $6 per 1,000 gallons.
Bennett said the town council will hold a public hearing on March 1 to discuss the hike.
Although Chesterfield maintains its own sewer lines within town limits, Bennett said, the town sends its waste to Anderson’s treatment facility.
Town board member Ron Branum said the town doesn’t want to implement the hike, but must do so in order to pay the increased Anderson rate.
Chesterfield filed a lawsuit to determine the fairness of the hike, which remains ongoing, Branum said.
Board member Rick Waldron said the town understood that its $1.11 rate could not last.
“We would have understood if there had to be a rate increase but not almost 700 percent in the end.”
Until the suit is reconciled, Branum said, the town must pursue a rate hike to avoid a deficit. “We can’t have deficit spending.”
Under the proposed hike, all sewer customers would pay a flat fee of $65.79 for the first 3,000 gallons of waste produced each month.
After 3,000 gallons, Bennett explained, another $21.93 is charged per 1,000 gallons.
This hike comes after a sewer rate increase in August.
Waldron said the cost of sewer bills coupled with the economic recession is already a burden on residents without this latest increase. “We’ve had a lot more shutoffs here than we ever have. It’s been bad.”
Branum said residents aren’t happy that sewer bills have been steadily increasing, but that most residents do not blame town officials.
“Once we explained it to the people the reason the rates are changing, most of them understand that.”
Even so, Branum expects to hear objections to the increase at the public hearing.
Hope for change may be on the horizon.
The town has partnered with the Delaware County Waste District and Commonwealth Engineering to draft plans for a wastewater treatment plant.
The project would relieve the town’s dependence on Anderson’s system and rate hikes.
Without a funding source narrowed down yet, Waldron said, the plant is a distant dream, at least three years away from being constructed. But Waldron remains optimistic about the progress.
“We’re just getting all our ducks in a row and moving along.”
Contact Brandi Watters 640-4847, brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com
