By DAVE SCHULTZ
Changes to the scope of the project mean that the required improvements to Bluffton’s wastewater treatment plant won’t hurt the city’s ratepayers as hard as had been predicted.
Eric Walsh of the BakerTilly municipal financial firm, who has been advising the city on the process, told the members of the Bluffton Common Council Tuesday night that the expected rate increase for an average household will now be $25 a month, from its current $37 a month to $62 a month.
Walsh told the council members that the revised rate calculations reflect the smaller project size.
He suggested two different plans to put the rate increases into effect. One plan calls for two increases of $12.50 a month in June (payable in July) and at the end of the year. The other proposal calls for three increases of $8 or $9 a month — one increase now, one at the end of the year, and another in mid-2024.
Walsh supported the two-increase plan. Three increases, he said, lessens the financial burden on ratepayers by lowering the required increases, but the ongoing increases give a feeling of going on and on. Walsh also said the city would be losing $600,000 in revenue as opposed to the two-increase plan.
Factored into the financial plan is a requirement from the Indiana Finance Authority that the financing the city receives from the State Revolving Loan Fund be used to benefit the Wells County Regional Sewer District.
The RSD has completed sanitary sewer collection networks in Liberty Center and Murray, and is about to complete work in Craigville. Projects in Kingsland and Tocsin are in some degree of development.
The RSD rates are upwards of $90 a month for its customers. Walsh said the city must give the RSD a break on treatment costs in order to qualify for the package of grants and no- and low-interest loans the SRF will make available to it. The total amount will be $5,7 to the RSD, which will knock down the treatment rate the district will pay the city by $17,000 a month. It was not known what the difference would be in the RSD’s rates its customers must pay.
The ordinance the city must pass was introduced Tuesday night but no action was taken on it. A public hearing will be held the evening of May 16, when the council next meets, and after hearing any comments the council will decide on two or three increases make any changes that might be needed to the sewer rate ordinance.
daves@news-banner.com
