Latrobe Municipal Authority approves water, sewage fee hikes
Latrobe Municipal Authority customers will see fees they pay for water and sewage service jump as the authority looks to finance major upgrades to both systems.
Authority directors this week approved a new monthly administration and operations fee of $12.75 for all water customers. In addition, residential customers will pay a usage fee of $2 per thousand gallons while all others will pay $3 per thousand gallons.
Customers are now paying a usage fee of $3.90 per thousand gallons but are billed a minimum of $11.70 per month for 3,000 gallons.
Sewage customers will see two new monthly fees — $6.50 to help cover debt service and $6 for administrative and operations costs. Authority Manager Terri Hauser said the authority board has yet to decide on a new sewage usage rate, which could be as high as $3.35 per thousand gallons. There no longer will be a minimum billing, $11.50 for 5,000 gallons at the current rate.
Hauser said the sewage debt service fee will take effect July 1. The remaining new rate structure will go into effect once the authority switches to a new web-based billing system that could generate bills on a monthly basis instead of the current quarterly schedule and might allow customers to make online payments. At the latest, the new fees will begin Jan. 1. There will be an $11,000 cost to the authority for migrating data to the new billing system.
Hauser said the water fees are needed to cover a $9.5 million bond issue the authority recently approved to finance several capital improvements as well as replacement of some waterlines in downtown Latrobe. The latter work will be completed in conjunction with street and intersection upgrades in the city.
“We'll replace a lot of the lines in downtown Latrobe when the streets are torn up,” authority board President Ellen Keefe said.
Keefe said other water system improvements will involve: Replacing some major supply lines, including along Latrobe's First Avenue; upgrading the water treatment plant; refurbishing and painting water holding tanks.
The authority also plans to refurbish three pump stations. That includes one near the entrance to the Wimmerton housing development in Unity that is aging and has resulted in interruptions in service to residents there.
The authority will continue an ongoing effort to replace old water meters with newer, automated versions, Keefe said.
The sewage rate changes are linked to a $10 million bond issue the authority is preparing to finance work needed to comply with a recently submitted, state-mandated Act 537 sewage facilities plan.
“It's in the process right now,” Keefe said of the financing effort. “In the next couple of months, we'll be finalizing that bond.”
The much-debated Act 537 plan was hammered out with state officials and authorities in Unity and Derry townships that have wastewater treated by the Latrobe authority. The plan calls for improvements meant to limit storm water passing through the Latrobe authority's sanitary sewers and to avert episodes where excess wastewater bypasses the Latrobe authority sewage plant and enters the Loyalhanna Creek untreated.
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-6622 or jhimler@tribweb.com.
