City to vote on monthly billing of sewer and garbage

[April 16, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

At the Monday night voting session of the Lincoln City Council, three agenda items are expected to be voted on that will have an impact on the monthly sewer and garbage billings for Lincoln constituents.

Last week aldermen discussed a change in the proposed billing structure to assist in paying for a large upgrade plan for the city sewerage department.

The city is under mandate by the Environmental Protection Agency to develop a Long-term Control Plan to reduce instances of storm water and raw sewerage overflows into natural water ways. The plan also includes upgrades. The engineering firm Crawford, Murphy, and Tilly outlined the work to be done and estimated the total cost of the project in the vicinity of $20 million. CMT had reviewed the sewerage rates currently charged by the city of Lincoln and offered a new rate structure with a sliding scale based on water usage.

Sewerage Facility Manager Tim Ferguson said that after the public meeting held a few weeks ago, when residents and property owners expressed concern about the ability to budget their sewerage bills, CMT had taken a second look at the billing structure.

To answer this concern, the city will consider offering a fixed rate based on consumption. Hoefle said the rate would work as follows:

• Monthly usage of up to 1,000 gallons of water would equate to a sewerage bill of $25.

• Water usage from 1,001 to 4,000 would mean a sewerage bill of $35.

• 4,001 to 8,000 would equate to a $45 sewerage bill.

• Anything over 8,000 would be billed out at $55.

Rick Hoefle said that using this flat rate, those who fill swimming pools for example would know that in the month they filled that pool their sewerage bill would be a set amount of probably $55. For those who are consistent in the amount of water they consume, they should be able to easily determine what their monthly sewer bill will be based on their water usage.

Hoefle said that these rates would help the city meet their obligations for paying for the upgrades, and were also a worst case scenario. He said there was the chance that the city would receive a break from the EPA on the loan, that there could be some principal forgiveness in the future that he believed could have an impact on the bills.

It was also noted that though the city needs to approve this billing structure for the paperwork CMT has to submit to the EPA, the rates do not have to take effect immediately. Ferguson said that putting the structure into play could wait until the city actually began borrowing money for the work projects, which he estimated would be later this year.

City to eliminate pre-paid discount

The city will also vote on a motion to delete section 7-8-1-14 from the city code. This section permits residents to prepay their sewerage bill a year at a time and earn a 10 percent discount. It was noted that when the tier structure is put into place, offering the discount will be practically impossible, so the ordinance allowing for the discount needs to be eliminated.

Aldermen will consider adding garbage to monthly sewerage bills

At this week’s voting session, aldermen will also be asked to vote on a motion to move the monthly billing responsibility for garbage collection from Area Disposal to the city of Lincoln. If approved, the city will begin billing the monthly garbage along with the monthly sewerage bills, on the same invoice.

Eric Shangraw with Area Disposal was on hand during the discussion. Hoefle talked about how this would work. The city would assume the responsibility for billing the garbage monthly at the rates established by Area Disposal in the contract with the city.

The city would then collect the bill and reimburse Area. Hoefle and Shangraw confirmed that the city would only be the pass through for the money, and would remit to Area only the dollars it collected. By doing it this way, the city will not be building up a large accounts payable figure to Area for bills that go unpaid.

Hoefle said on the up side of taking over the billing, the city will earn $1.20 for every bill sent out. He explained that the $1.20 would equate to approximately $63,000 per year the city would earn. Within that amount, he said there would have to be some upfront costs for adjusting software and also purchasing a new envelope stuffer for the monthly billing. In addition, the switch to the city doing the billing will have to be contingent upon the council approving moving billing clerk Ashley Davis from a part time position to a full time position.

Hoefle said his desire would be to cover those costs, then figure out how to give the balance of that $1.20 back to the residents of Lincoln. Of the estimated $63 thousand, Hoefle estimated the city could and should return about $50,000 to constituents.

City Clerk Peggy Bateman said that being able to take on the billing of garbage was going to depend solely on whether or not the city approved changing Davis’ status from part-time to fulltime. She said without that fulltime status, there would be no way the city could do the billing work.

To that end, the motions regarding the garbage bills will come in two parts. The first part will be the motion to approve Davis’ change of status. If that motion passes, then aldermen will act on a motion to approve taking over the monthly billing of the garbage services.

If both motions pass, the change in billing method could take effect June 1st.

[Nila Smith]