Jeffersonville sewer rate headaches continue

Clark County

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September 10, 2012

Jeffersonville sewer rate headaches continue

New billing system coming, employee added in Jeffersonville

By BRADEN LAMMERS braden.lammers@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Mon Sep 10, 2012, 07:03 AM EDT

JEFFERSONVILLE — Although summer is almost over, the plan that was designed to give Jeffersonville residents a break on their sewer bills while watering their lawns and washing their cars is still causing headaches.

Issues that the city’s sewer billing office has been addressing for weeks came to the Sanitary Sewer Board meeting Thursday. Jeffersonville resident Karen Ellmers asked for clarification on the summer sewer rates. She explained that she has a water meter for the outdoor spigots on her home, but stopped using them when she heard about the city’s summer sewer agreement that would set a flat-rate for her bill at about $61.

But Ellmers was not granted the cheaper rate and asked the sewer board why she can’t have the same access to the waiver program.

“I still don’t understand why my situation is any different than anyone else’s just because I’ve used a meter in the past. Why am I being excluded now?” she asked. “We stopped using the meter because there was supposed to be summer rates.”

Amendments to the summer relief program were adopted by the city’s sewer board July 5 that require water meters on outdoor water spigots or a summer sewer agreement form to be on file with the sewer billing office in order to receive a discounted rate. But summer relief credits were granted to all Jeffersonville residents in June. At the sewer board’s next meeting in July, the members agreed to go back and adjust the bills that had already gone out with the summer relief credits.

Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore, who is one of the members on the sewer board, opposed the move and wanted to keep the credits in place for all residents.

“I was happy with the program the city’s had for the last two decades,” Moore said at Thursday’s meeting. “I wish we could have continued that.”

The program, instituted in 1991, provided an average reduced rate to all of the city’s sewer customers in the summer months to account for water used outside that did not flow into sewers. However, changes were made to cover the bonds issued by the city to comply with an Environmental Protection Agency mandate for combined-sewer overflows.

“If you want to have summer relief, our [base] rates will have to be higher,” said Sewer Board Member Dale Orem. “Because when we give you that adjustment, we can’t pay our bond issue.”

It was explained again that only those whose homes cannot be outfitted with a water meter are eligible for the waiver.

“At the present time there is no summer relief,” Orem said. “At the present time, if your house can be plumbed for a meter and you water a lot, you should use the meter.”

Sewer Board Attorney Scott Lewis added the waiver is the program in place that allows people to receive credit for water that does not get into the sewer system.

“It’s subject to verification,” he added. “Those agreements allow representatives from the city to go out and investigate the house and make sure that what they have claimed is true. If it’s not true, then those agreements will not be effective any longer.”

Ellmers added that she just recently became aware that she can’t sign waiver because she had a water meter.

“When you’re told there won’t be summer relief, then you’re told there is summer relief, then you’re told you can’t sign up for summer relief, it gets really confusing and as a customer you don’t know what to do,” she said. “[The sewer board needs to] improve communication to the community about what is going on with the sewer bills. I think improved communication would go a long way toward easing the burden [in the sewer billing office] because the lines are ridiculous and you can’t get through on the phone.”

The sewer billing office has had a telephone message tell callers that due to high call volume a representative cannot answer the phone. In addition, for a number of local residents, their most recent bill showed a previously unpaid balance of $49.

Sewer Billing Department Supervisor Rick Stephenson said the balance came because of a glitch in the software the office uses for billing.

“The software says you have a previous balance and you do not,” he said. “We do not know why it printed it on there. The billing’s a problem. We’re fixing it the first of the year.”

The sewer board is in the process of purchasing new billing software and Thursday it also agreed to add a new administrative assistant position in the office. The new employee would be paid $28,000 and would bring the total number of employees in the office up to four.

The board also agreed to request that the drainage board pay for half of the salary of the new employee.