Live in Derby in a single-family house?
Then you’ll be receiving a $257 bill in a few months. And you’ll probably be receiving the extra charge for at least the next 20 years.
To learn more, click play to listen to a podcast interview between The Valley Indy and Jack Walsh, a volunteer who serves as the appointed chairman of the city’s Water Pollution Control Authority.
The bill is coming from the Derby Water Pollution Control Authority. It is on top of the annual bill you receive from the authority for using flushing your toilet.
The $257 bill isn’t arriving out of the blue. Voters in Derby approved some $31.2 million in sewer repairs and upgrades in 2014.
Now it’s time to start paying.
FYI
You’ll receive ONE WPCA bill, but it will have TWO charges:
1. Your regular annual sewer bill
2. The capital fee connected to the 2014 referendum.
You can pay the bill in two installments. The due dates are (half the bill) by Sept. 1, 2018 and (the other half of the bill) by March 1, 2019.
While the bill can be paid in two installments, it’s important to remember that you will only be receiving ONE WPCA bill over the next year.
It’s up to the property owner to keep track of the due dates.
A substantial number of construction projects are either completed, being planned, or underway.
“Keep in mind I believe this was the single-biggest bond referendum the city ever did, including schools,” Walsh said. “We’re four years beyond (the vote) now, and work has started, and this is the year we have to start paying it back.”
Last year’s WPCA bills included a note telling property owners the referendum bill would be arriving this year.
The WPCA recently adopted a budget, keeping the sewer rate flat.
Three pump stations — the facilities that get waste water to the main sewage treatment plant at the end of Caroline Street — have been rebuilt since 2014.
The replacement of a critically important pump station on Route 34/Roosevelt Drive was well into the design phase as of late May. That project alone is going to cost more than $7 million.
However, a number of upgrades and equipment replacement at the main sewage treatment plant has been put on hold while communities all over the Naugatuck Valley study whether it makes sense to start regionalizing sewer systems.
Click play to learn much more from Jack Walsh.
