By Emmett O'Connell, Vidette Reporter, The Montesano Vidette , 12/17/98
In order to get on the road to having the city's sewer permit renewed in two years, the McCleary City council approved an increase in the sewer rate.
The rate increase, while not .directly mandated by the State Department of Ecology, was motivated by that agency.
McCleary city staff also hopes that the increase will pay for changes in the system that will make a new sewer permit possible.
"(DOE) doesn't tell anyone to raise their rates," said city administrator Brian Shay. "But, they determine what rates your customers can pay from the gross median income. If your rates don't meet that determination, you can't apply for grants."
This increase takes the per month charge for residential users from $18.50 to $31 a month per connection.
People over 62 will receive a discount as well, under the new rate plan. Instead of paying the full charge each month, they will pay $24.80.
This senior citizen discount caused the only real discussion on the issue when it was being considered before council.
One resident wanted to know whether it was legal to give some people a break, and others not.
It was proposed to give senior citizens a break on their power bills, said resident Helen Lake, but that was struck down as not being fair.
This happened because McCleary, which is one of the only municipalities to own its own power system, would have been charged the same price by its power suppliers, no matter what it charged its customers, said council members. This would have put an unfair burden on non-senior rate payers.
Giving a break to senior citizens on sewer rates, as opposed to power rates, said city attorney Wayne Hagen, isn't illegal.
Despite that, the senior citizen discount caused the council's one dissenting vote by Wallace Bently, who at 63 will be eligible for discount.
The resolution to raise sewer rates also included a provision for users not covered to be able to negotiate their rate with city staff. But, since the resolution splits all users up into residential and non-residential, who would fall under this provision is unclear.
Non-residential users, which include McCleary's largest customer, the Simpson Timber plant, will pay an overage charge of two cents on every cubic foot of water of 850 cubic feet.
Larger users, like Simpson which takes up 20 percent of the city's per day discharge volume, hopefully will be able to cut back to add capacity to the current system, said Shay.
"What they're hoping to do is to pipe processed water up to a reservoir and discharge it into the ground," he said. Simpson is currently applying to the DOE for a permit to allow this plan.
By treating their own water, and pumping it to a reservoir, Shay hopes that this will cut down on the 47,000 gallons Simpson puts into McCleary's system a day.
Being able to come into compliance with the city's current permit, and expectations of the next permit (to be applied for in 2001) are the main reasons behind the increase, said Shay.
The city will also be looking at spending approximately $75,000 this year to complete a plan on the entire sewer system and $8,700 to make repairs on it.
At the end of the city's current sewer license, "it's entirely possible" that the city won't be able to dump into its current dump site, the Wildcat Creek, said Shay.
Recently the state has been asking the city to cut down on its discharge into the creek, and by making repairs, the changes being made by Simpson and the study on the system, the city will be able to do this, he said.
This page created and maintained by Chehalis River Council
Send comments or questions to the: Chehalis River Council