Water and sewer funds continue to drag on other areas of budget
By Austen Smith, Editor
PUBLISHED: June 19, 2008
After an increase to water and sewer rates of more than 50 percent just over a year ago, city of Belleville officials are now forced to raise the rates again in an effort to stymie a fund that has been draining on the city's finances.
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City Council Monday approved an additional 22 percent increase to water service provided to city of Belleville residents, this coming on the heels of an increase to sewer service approved on June 2. The increase will take effect the first billing cycle after July 1.
Ever since the 50 percent in March of 2007, officials said local consumption has dropped significantly causing the fund to drop back into crisis and being forced to draw upon other budgeted funds.
"There is a severe problem with the water and sewer fund right now," said Carl Johnson from Plante and Moran, the city's accounting and financial firm. "The water system funds needs to self-sufficient. What happened was when the city failed to adjust the rates for all those years, you essentially lost that compounding effect and you will never get it back."
Johnson said after reviewing the water fund and where it stood after the significant increase from last year, he said consumption dropped in the city by nearly 15 percent. And there was no reason to believe that was going to rise again in the near future.
"This is not a very strong industry-based community. So when people see that their water rates are going up, they use less water," Johnson said.
Council members at first rejected the water rate increase, originally proposed at their June 2 meeting, instead choosing to OK a sewer increase and directing administration to take a deeper look into the historical data surrounding the water rates.
Johnson told council members that there was no way around the increase, as the city desperately needs to keep up with average consumption in order to make the fund viable.
"Even if you picked through your budget with a fine-toothed comb, you won't be able to come up with 22 percent," Johnson said. "Consumption is just the hardest thing to predict. Once we fix that, we will be able to see where (the fund) is a little better in the future."
Councilman George Chedraue was the lone dissenting vote, it passed three to one.
In other business, a motion to approve the Belleville View as the city's Newspaper of Record failed because of a tie vote.
Councilman Chedraue and Mayor Pro-Tem Rick Dawson voted "no" on the motion, while Brian Blackburn and James Shrove voted "yes."
Mayor Richard Smith was not at the meeting, however he sent an e-mail to all council members recommending The View as the Newspaper of Record saying that it represented a significant cost savings for the city. Smith wrote in a sheet included in the board packet that legal advertising with The View was nearly 50 percent less than advertising with the city's current Newspaper of Record, The Belleville Area Independent.
Some members of the audience said they preferred for the city to keep The Independent because of its significantly higher circulation of 7,000. The View's circulation stands at 1,200 in 48111 zip code.
Council members previously tabled the matter to find out additional information. The item will be brought back for a third time at the city's July 7 meeting.
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