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STEUBENVILLE -- The city's utility rate increase this year won't be the $23.70 base rate increase aired in July, but some rate increase, initially to get the water and sewer funds out of debt, will come, followed by more increases in future years.
The size of the first increase remains in flux as City Council awaits reports from consultants and more answers from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Finance Director David Lewis has stated about $6.50 on the minimum bill would be needed for the funds to break even. City Manager Jim Mavromatis stressed the city needs to have its funds balanced before it can go seeking loans for water and sewer projects.
The emphasis on water and sewer needs came after the downtown area was without water for 12 days in January when bad valves left crews unable to isolate a small area to repair a major leak, draining the low-pressure reservoir. Overall, the city administration estimates as much as $29.75 million needs to be spent on its water, sewer and sanitation systems in today's dollars.
Council on Tuesday met with Lewis and Water and Wastewater Superintendent Chuck Murphy to continue hammering out details in the rate study the two men presented in July.
Murphy advised council that a meeting in two weeks with his staff and the consultants from Arcadis, which is handling the water projects, will allow more answers on work and costs and setting an eventual rate increase.
"It is prudent to get that information in first. It could have a significant impact, positive or negative, on the rates. The goal is to get the job done properly at the least cost for our customers, and it will be in our best interest not to finalize anything until that comes home," Murphy said. Lewis noted the city is paying Arcadis "a couple of hundred thousand dollars" for its work, so waiting until its study comes back makes sense.
Murphy said it could be about month before a set of recommendations comes from Arcadis.
Murphy reported that, after talking with the OEPA, one of the major projects, to rebuild the secondary aerator at the sewage treatment plant, can be spread out in phases, making the $3.5 million cost of the total project less painful to bear.
Lewis reported the city will apply this month for a state Water Pollution Control Fund Loan. Council already approved spending $510,000 for design work on the aerator, which means the city will need to borrow about $2.99 million for the project. Lewis said using the loan program helps because payments are not due right away but when construction is "substantially complete." He said that would be expected about October 2021, which breaks up the need for part of the originally planned increase this fall.
The aerator is at least two years beyond its planned service life, and its failure would be catastrophic to the city in terms of OEPA fines and sewage discharge to the Ohio River.
He said an automated bar screen installation project would start after 2021 with completion, after design and OEPA permits and approvals, to come in 2025, again further spreading out the cost impact on customers.
In the interim, 5th Ward Councilman Willie Paul said the city should budget for overtime at the sewer plant to allow workers to manually work the screens during heavy storm events.
Lewis said a third issue is the improvements to combined sanitary-storm sewer overflows. The city's sewer consultants, HDR, reported 174.5 million gallons of raw sewage and rainwater combined was discharged into the Ohio River from January 2015 through December.
Murphy said work on the combined sewer overflows would be done in stages, with modifications and computer modeling to prevent overflows and backups. He said the most recent version of an OEPA sewer consent decree would allow the work to be done after the automated bar screen project is complete in 2025. Murphy said there are ongoing negotiations about how to schedule the work.
On the water side, Murphy said testing on 305 critical valves identified for the EPA is complete, and as many as 78 are in operating condition, though it's not known if they will seal completely when closed. Many valves could not be located and must be assumed to be in need of replacement.
He said having the 78 valves working would save $1.048 million from the $7 million initial valve replacement project. The city is awaiting final approval of a $7 million combination loan and grant from the state for the valve project. Once the initial valve replacements are done, the plan would be for the city to replace 65 of its total 1440 valves annually.
Another critical project, a refurbishing of the West End water tower, complete with using smaller tanks and pumps to keep the water pressure up in the West End during the work, will be deferred to 2020. The city will apply a year from now for another state loan for the estimated $1 million project, with funding not available until 2020 if approved. Again, Lewis said, moving the project back and obtaining a lower interest rate for the work would spread out the costs for customers.
The city also will be discussing with Arcadis how it bills commercial accounts for infrastructure charges. Instead of a per-meter charge, the city could switch to a gallons-based infrastructure charge only for commercial customers. Depending on how the fees are implemented, the city could collect around an additional $100,000 annually from business customers.
After discussion, council decided to let an assistant utility superintendent and an administrator be paid out of the utility funds for the final three months of the year. Council granted Mavromatis permission to begin seeking people to fill the jobs, which will allow better management of the myriad of projects facing the water and sewer departments. Lewis is continuing to study the cost-effectiveness of contracting out a valve-exercising crew work instead of hiring additional city staff.
In other matters:
≤ Mavromatis reported the ctiy will have to remove a Ten Comandments plaque from Murphy Field as a result of a warning letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison, Wis. The plaque was provided by a church neighboring the park. Mavromatis noted the group is the same one that opposed a crucifix representing the Franciscan University of Steubenville as part of a proposed city seal seceral years ago.
≤ Recreation Director Lori Fetherolf reported a portrait of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been put on the wall behind the main desk in the MLK Recreation Center. She said a portrait of his wife, Coretta Scott King, is being framed and will be placed on the wall when it's ready.
≤ Mavromatis reported he's studying changes to city cell phone policy. He said a 2014 ordinance spelling out who should have phones is too restrictive, going so far as to name the city's recommended wireless carrier. He said under the ordinance, he cannot even consider lower-cost offers from other carriers. He said he will consider going to a payroll stipend for employees to get their own phones if it looks cost effective.