Sewage rate change to benefit residents
ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP: Residents should be happy: The average homeowner's monthly sewage bill soon might decrease by about $5.
Business owners might not be quite as pleased.
In many cases, their sewage bills could go up — by how much depends on use — under a new rate system proposed by the Municipal Authority of Allegheny Township. The change is intended to update a section of the authority's billing system that is antiquated.
A public hearing on the new rate system is scheduled for 7 p.m. Jan. 6 at the Allegheny Township Community Building.
Robert Polczynski, authority chairman, said the move will help even things up between businesses and residents. He indicated that residents have been paying too much and businesses too little toward the authority's debts from past sewerage projects.
Over the years, the authority has racked up about $6.1 million in debt to get sewers built for about 2,000 customers, Polczynski said.
Debt service is built into customers' monthly bills and accounts for about two-thirds of the payment. Customers don't see that category on their bills, Polczynski said.
Another part of the bill is water treatment costs, also not itemized on bills. Township businesses are charged fairly on the water treatment part of their sewage bills, but not for the debt service portion of their bills, Polczynski said.
To illustrate, Polczynski gave the example of a car wash. Even though it may use five times as much water as a house, both are treated the same now in terms of how they are billed for authority debt service.
After the Jan. 6 public hearing, the next step is consideration from the township supervisors. They may vote on the change at their Jan. 13 meeting in the Community Building. That meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Lee Demosky, solicitor for the authority, couldn't say how many business customers would be affected by the rate changes or how much their rates might increase. Costs will vary depending on water usage.
The co-owner of one township business seemed concerned.
Jim Contino, a co-owner of the Kiski Kar Wash along Route 56, said he believes his business already is hit with double what it should be in sewage bills.
The average monthly bill for him is $200, he said.
The car wash has six coin-operated hand bays. The owners are considering adding an automatic car wash and are trying to get township approval to expand the building.
But depending on how much sewage bills will go up with this new plan, Contino said the expansion might be more expensive than expected. The automatic car wash would use more water than the hand bays, he said.
The authority's most recent project was to get sewer service to about 200 houses in the Melwood area of Allegheny Township. That project cost $3.9 million and the homes started getting public sewerage service two years ago.
