Wastewater rate hike riles officials

SUSSEX — Sussex Borough Mayor Chris Parrott said he was livid after attending a public rate hearing held by the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority (SCMUA) on Nov. 24 and learning that the borough’s sewer utility is facing a 30 percent rate hike for wastewater processing in 2010. After imposing a 20 percent rate hike for its water and sewer customers last June, Sussex Borough is faced with “giving the same people a 30 percent increase (in 2010) if we can’t offset it,” said Parrott at the town’s Dec. 1 borough council meeting. Parrott said he complained publicly about the proposed rate hike at the SCMUA meeting after learning that the borough’s wastewater processing bill is set to rise from $518,165 in 2009 to $687,047 next year. Said Parrott, “This was poor planning.” He’s not the only local municipal official who’s irked by SCMUA’s planned rate hike for customers in the Upper Wallkill program. “All the scrimping and saving we did last year was wiped out in one letter from SCMUA,” said Richard Wolak, administrator for Franklin Borough, which is slated to see its annual wastewater processing rates rise from $787,213 in 2009 to $1,017,358 in 2010. SCMUA Administrator John Hatzelis says the rate increases are being driven by reductions in revenues, including a significant drop in new customer connections, reductions in interest-bearing accounts and a $550,000 surplus that was used in 2009 that’s no longer available for 2010. The overall increase for the 2010 Upper Wallkill operating budget is just 2.1 percent, said Hatzelis. But it’s the drop in revenues that’s driving the rate hike for customers such as Sussex Borough, Franklin Borough, the Borough of Hamburg and Sparta Township, said Hatzelis. SCMUA’s debt service also has some bearing on its 2010 expenses. According to a summary of SCMUA’s projected fiscal year 2010 expenses for the Upper Wallkill program, the organization’s debt service is scheduled to rise from $1,824,000 or 34.66 percent of SCMUA’s $5,263,200 in total 2009 expenses to $1,982,000 or 36.85 percent of its proposed $5,378,000 for its 2010 Upper Wallkill expenses. Yet SCMUA’s total 2010 expenses are rising just 2.1 percent overall, thanks in part to a $43,000 cut in administrative costs and $94,700 in reduced operations and maintenance expenditures. The planned rate increases “are revenue-driven, not expense-driven,” said Hatzelis. For his part, Franklin Borough’s Wolak said he’s unsure what changes SCMUA’s wastewater rate increase will have on its own utility rates in 2010 until its auditors conduct an analysis. At present, residents in a single-family home in Franklin pay about $1,200 per quarter for sewer services, said Wolak. The borough “is hard-pressed to keep its rates stable in 2010,” said Wolak.