Westminster residents could face slightly higher sewer fees, so the city can pay for cleaner wastewater, new city vehicles and higher salaries.
“While we would have preferred not to have to raise rates, we need to deal with reality,” said Westminster Mayor Thomas Ferguson, referring to the exhaustion of one-time funds to plug the city?s current revenue gap. Joseph D. Urban, Westminster director of finance, presented the City Council with the preliminary 2007 budget Monday, which included the first sewer fee hike since 2000.
Sewer rates will rise 20 percent, with the minimum rate increasing from $21.20 to $25.44 per quarter. The rate increase will help cover what city leaders describe as long overdue pay increases for city employees in an effort to attract and maintain high-quality individuals. In addition to rising salaries and ever-increasing health care costs, escalating fuel prices are creating a burden.
“Our water treatment facilities are electric users. The rate increase is there to cover six years of increasing costs,” said Thomas B. Beyard, the city?s director of planning and public works.
The fee hike also helps supplement the state flush tax, which funds the state?s Enhanced Nutrient Removal Project, so harmful elements are removed from Westminster wastewater before reaching the Chesapeake Bay.
This will allow the city to access state funds that may not be available if the city postponed the project. The eventual cost for this project could run into the millions, Beyard said.
Planning and Public Works also will purchase several new vehicles in the new fiscal year.
A new Gator all-terrain vehicle, “a small vehicle we use to access facilities where our trucks can?t go,” is needed, said Beyard.
Several new trucks are also on their way, one of which will be a jet-cleaning truck to carry equipment needed to clean sewer lines.
