Residents will have to pay at least $285 a year in extra sewer fees, under a proposal discussed by the Water Pollution Control Authority Wednesday night.
The bills will pay for the city’s new $53 million waste water treatment plant, currently under construction and about 80 percent complete.
The WPCA will hold a public hearing on the proposal at 6 p.m. June 1, and will vote on the fees at its regular meeting June 2.
The Bad News
The proposal puts a larger burden on multiple-family homes — a concern of some residents the first time the bills were discussed a few years ago.
Under the proposal, single-family homes will pay a base cost of $285 a year.
For two-family homes, the cost increases to $570 a year. For three-family homes, it’s $855 a year.
Restaurants and bars will be charged about $570 to $700.
These fees are on top of the annual sewer-use fees that residents already pay to the WPCA.
The Good News
Acting Mayor Stephen Blume announced Wednesday that the state has agreed to cut Ansonia a break on its required reserve payment, due with the first bill in the summer of 2012.
The city was supposed to pay an extra $2.2 million with that first payment, Blume said. But, after seven months of negotiations, the state treasurer agreed to drop the reserve payment down to $1.1 million, Blume said.
“That will reduce the bill a little bit,” Blume said at the WPCA meeting.
The deal was worked out by returning to a 20-year payment schedule.
During earlier negotiations, the state treasurer had agreed to allow Ansonia to pay the loan back over 30 years, lowering the annual bills that would have to be sent out.
But Blume said that payment schedule was not favored by the state and would have increased the total amount of interest the city had to pay in the long run.
Background
The first bill for the plant is due about one year after it is completed. The project is ahead of schedule, and is set to be finished next summer.
Each year the WPCA will owe a little more than $2 million on loans it acquired from the state to build the plant. The first payment is the highest, because the WPCA also has to put down a reserve with its first bill.
Blume had originally said the city would owe about $6.8 million the first year, but with the deal from the state on the reserve payment, that figure is now closer to $5.7 million, Blume said.
The city was required to upgrade its out-of-date waste water treatment plant because it no longer complied with updated environmental standards.
