Residents will have to wait at least a month to weigh in on the proposed sewer bills for the new waste water treatment plant.
The Water Pollution Control Authority had initially planned to hold a public hearing on the additional bills this Wednesday.
But the public hearing will have to be rescheduled because a legal notice wasn’t placed in the newspaper the required 21 days before the meeting, said WPCA attorney John Androski.
The WPCA will likely set a different date for a public hearing at its meeting on Wednesday night, Androski said.
No Figure Yet
The WPCA has been struggling to determine how much each sewer user will be charged to help pay for the new $53 million plant.
The first payment, of about $6.8 million, is due in the summer of 2012.
The board had proposed starting bills a couple years ago so that the cost would be spread out over a longer period of time.
But city leaders postponed the bills while they tried to get grants or other sources of funding to offset the large cost.
As of last month, Acting Mayor Stephen Blume said he was still trying to get the state legislature to waive the $2.3 million reserve payment that is due as part of the first bill.
Despite the uncertainty, the WPCA has wanted to get the first bills out this summer so residents can pay their share over three bills, rather than two, chairman Howard Madigosky has said.
Ballpark figures floated during public hearings two years ago indicated the bills could range from $100 to $300 on top of the normal sewer usage bills.
The new plant was mandated by the state because the old plant was outdated and didn’t comply with updated environmental standards.
If the city didn’t build the new plant, it faced increasing fines from the state.
The document below is the agenda for the WPCA meeting Wednesday night.
