It is easy to collect and spend taxpayers' money, a resident said, but officials need to be accountable.
John Epstein, of Harvard Street, speaks to Holyoke City Council Tuesday during public hearing at City Hall on proposed sewer rate increase. HOLYOKE -- When they finally got the chance to speak, at a public hearing on a proposed sewer-rate increase, residents like Richard Theroux told the City Council their bills are already high.
Theroux, of Brown Avenue, said Tuesday he pays $600 a year for water and sewer service for the two-family and the three-family buildings he owns.
"That's a lot of money to pay," Theroux said.
It was more than an hour into the hearing at City Hall before members of the public were allowed to speak about the proposed 11 percent increase. That came after councilors made remarks and questioned William D. Fuqua, general superintendent of the Department of Public Works.
The current sewer rate is $5.40 per 1,000 gallons of usage for an average 90,000 gallons used, or $486 a year for the average household.
To address a sewer fund deficit Fuqua said was projected to be $890,000, the council Ordinance Committee has recommended the rate rise to $6. That would increase the average household sewer-use fee to $540 a year.
John Epstein, of Harvard Street, said he was tired of the burden of sewer customers who fail to pay their bills being shifted onto paying customers like himself. City departments must be more careful about spending, such as on a mailing he received printed on expensive, glossy paper, he said.
"It's easy to collect the money from the taxpayers and the rate-payers, and even easier to spend it. I think somebody should be accountable for that," Epstein said.
The last sewer rate increase was in 2008. It was unclear after the hearing when the City Council would vote whether to increase the rate.
An estimated $400,000 is owed for sewer bills over the past 10 years, Fuqua said.
State law prohibits the shut off of sewer service. Officials here said the lack of such leverage hinders the ability to force payment from delinquent customers.
Mayor Alex B. Morse and the City Council are considering seeking state legislation that would let Holyoke Water Works end water service to customers that have failed to pay sewer bills. That would come after a series of warnings, officials said.
Still, officials said, it could be six months or longer before the Legislature approves such a special act and months more to realize positive effects from such bill-collecting leverage.
Sewer fund expenses in the current fiscal year are projected to be $8.75 million and revenues $7.86 million, leaving a shortfall of $890,000, Fuqua said.
Most of the expenses are payment to United Water, the private company that runs the wastewater treatment plant on Berkshire Street, and $1.69 million a year goes to pay off debt for plant and other upgrades, he said.
Richard Purcell, of Martin Street, said current calls for a rate increase show the city never should have privatized the wastewater plant in 2005.
"The public has to break even. When you privatize anything, you have to make a profit," Purcell said.
Fuqua said that when the state Department of Revenue certifies the free cash that will be available in the sewer fund, which usually happens in September, it is expected that will be $340,000.
If the entire free cash surplus were then used to dim the deficit, instead of saving some for emergencies or to make capital improvements, that would only drop the deficit to $550,000, he said.