|
HOLLY, Michigan – The old adage, “One man’s loss is another man’s gain,” couldn’t ring more true for village water and sewer customers. On Tuesday, village officials discussed a snafu in the billing system that will lower water and sewer bills for some, and raise it for others.
Currently, village water and sewer consumers pay a base rate or debt service charge of $48.30 per month, plus $6.80 per 1,000 gallons of water used, and $8.96 per 1,000 gallons of sewage.
Village Manager Jerry Walker said that could all change as early as next month after village staffers identified a problem with how debt service charges are being made to certain customers on the system.
“There are some owners of multi-unit buildings – whether it be residential, business-oriented or commercial, that may have one meter on the building, but have multiple water and sewer customers,” he said. A closer review of the village ordinance by attorney Richard Figura told the story.
“The determination was made that the rate should be charged to each individual water customer to promote equality for all the users so that the debt service charge is charged equally to everybody,” Walker said.
While Director for Holly’s Department of Public Works, Brian Klaassen is currently in the process of determining how many additional customers the change will bring, Walker said he hopes to bring the issue and adjusted debt service charge back to council as early as next month.
“The study of the water system and the debt service charge – this really is exactly what we said we would do each year, even though council had previously passed a five year rate schedule with regard to water and sewer,” Walker said. “So while we didn’t contemplate adding customers in this exact format, it will accomplish what we said we would do, and it’s our feeling that it is going to lower the debt service charge to every customer in the village of Holly – or on the system because there are some customers in the township.”
Walker explained that the issue came to light after a landlord for several local apartment complexes came forward, saying that he believed he was being overcharged on the debt service fee.
“There was a landlord who owned three separate buildings and in those separate three buildings, he has 11 apartments,” Walker said. “From those 11 apartments, he had six water meters, so he was being charged for six base rates.”
Walker said it was then that he recognized the problem.
“I said, ‘You may be sorry you asked this question because I’m not sure you were overcharged – I think it’s quite possible that you were undercharged,’” Walker said. “What he would do is he would get those billings – and in his particular case he paid the water as part of his rent, but he was also paying six debt service charges instead of 11.”
Councilwoman Sandra Kleven said she understood how some landlords roll the debt service, water and sewer charges into the rental fee, but asked if they would then be required to pay for all 11 units even if some of them were not occupied.
“Yes, just as we have some vacant homes in subdivisions, we will bill the homeowners or the bank in some cases to pay the debt service charge,” Walker said.
“The whole idea of doing this has my support,” Village President Jeff Miller said. “I think it’s equitable, but one of the places that will probably be hit by a number of extra billings would be Presbyterian Village,” he added. “But we have senior citizens living in their own places in the community paying that debt service charge – the rest of us are paying and they have inadvertently been riding on us for a while.”
Miller understands that not everyone will be happy. “There will probably be some people in town who are angry, but a whole lot more people will be happy because it will be equitable.”
Miller said those affected residents will not be back-billed for past debt service charges.
Based on Klaassen’s research, Walker is expected to provide council members with a new suggested debt service charge at the Feb. 28 meeting. In the meantime, Walker said he hopes to meet with those property owners affected by the change to discuss the matter in more detail.
|
Child porn charges filed against Holly m...
Resident speaks out about village budget...
Rose Township Clerk recognized for achie...
Rose Township Clerk recognized for achie...
Rose Township Clerk recognized for achie...
Comments
So here we have another situation that you would have think we would have figured out previously.
I imagine assigning a bond fee for each apartment in multi-unit dwellings should pretty much kill off the rentals in our community. Who's going to rent a place that has an extra $50 fee (probably 7%-10% of their rent) when they can live 3 minutes away without such fees. Unlike those with a mortgage, renters are fortunate enough to have more flexibility in leaving.
You could have 600 gallons a month just in toilet flushes alone. If each person took a daily 10 minute shower, that's probably another 1200 gallons.
Check if the letter next to your reading had an "E" or an "A" the past couple months. I believe the "E" means it was estimated (poorly) and "A" is an actual reading. When the rates first went up a couple months ago, my meter stopped reporting apparently and I didn't notice it. My bill was about the same from the increases so I just paid it as usual. Then after a couple months the village contacted me and fixed the meter; once it was reporting again I had to pay what was missed which resulted in an increased bill that month.
Look at your previous bills and you can get an idea of your average usage.
For a household that uses 5000 gallons a month, you're paying about 2.5 cents per gallon for water.
A standard toilet is 3.4 gallons per flush, 1.3 - 1.6 for a more modern low flow model.
A showerhead can be 4+ gallons per minute or around 2 gallons per minute for a low flow model.
We have a reverse osmosis drinking water system which are terrible water wasters. They send about 4 gallons of water down the drain for each gallon of water drinking water they create. Most people don't have the first clue how these work and how inefficient they are.
So it all adds up pretty quickly...
Basically you pay a base rate of $48.30 before you consume a drop of water and then $15.76 per 1000 gallons of water and sewer. Those are the 2011 numbers, 2012 should be a base rate of $50.43 and $16.23 per 1000 gallons. If you have a second meter for outdoor usage, these numbers will vary in the summer due to credits on the sewer side of your outdoor usage.
If the question is why you vary anywhere from 1000 to 5000 gallons of usage, this is something you can check yourself by paying attention to your meter.
Record the number on your meter before you go to sleep and check it the next morning to see if it's changed; if so, something could be leaking.
Water meters are pretty reliable, I have an assumed trust that it's as good as my car's odometer. So if the number is increasing without you using anything, it's time to start looking around.
If you check the back of the bill, you'll see where something as small as a 1/32" leak can waste 170 gallons of water in 24 hours which is over 5000 gallons a month. It doesn't take much and can add up quickly.
RSS feed for comments to this post