Town of Basin reviews increase in sewer rates

The second meeting of April for the Basin Town Council was held April 24. One topic of discussion was the possible increase in sewer rates. 

Mayor CJ Duncan said there is a need for a sewer rate increase. “According to the agreement we had with our USDA funding, it says that we need to have an addition to a debt service reserve fund. Must be established for short lived asset reserve fund. So, it is like a repair fund for our sewer. We have to put $46,260 in that reserve fund annually.” 

Duncan said they put $40,000 in the fund last year. Prior to that, the town put $15,000 in. “They want to make sure that we are doing that so that fund needs to go up to $46,250 in reserves,” said Duncan. 

He added there is an annual $41,000 loan payment that is coming up for 2025/26. These factors are the reason for the increase discussion. 

Councilman Brent Godfrey said he had several town residents talk to him about the possible increase. “My concern is the fact that everybody in here, it probably won’t affect. But the older people in town that are on Social Security, it’s going to whack them hard.”

Councilman Mike Dellos said based on the numbers he saw, the increases would be double or a little bit more. Duncan said not quite, but close. He said residential water users would go up $5.47 a month. Larger water users would go up $10.12 a month. Out-of-town users would go up $10.21 a month.  The large users are mostly businesses. 

Town Clerk/Public Works Manager Tony Harrison said those proposed rate increases would generate $296,264. The expenditures would then be in the black. “We would be breaking even.” The $41,000 loan payment is a factor that was not in play last year. 

Duncan said he believes the out-of-town users should be increased more; there are two of them. 

Councilman Chuck Hopkin said that while he agrees with Godfrey’s sentiment about how the increases will impact residents, he “also likes to flush his toilet. I know that we have to come up to what our actual rate is. Not that we are making any money off this.” He asked if there was any alternative to meet the requirements. 

Duncan said the rates could be set lower but it would impact the budget. Godfrey asked how much money could be taken out of the reserve account. Duncan said it can’t be taken out of the account. “Your reserve account isn’t where it should be now.” 

Dellos stated, “I think we need to pay for what it costs us to do it. That means, to me, our budget is $30,000 over. We have to figure out how we can balance our budget before we are asking people to pay more. I think that is probably something that we ought to be careful that we are not overspending ourselves. Then asking people to pay.” 

Duncan said he doesn’t disagree with Dellos. “At our work session we cut almost $110,000 out of the budget. That is a pretty big cut already. Like you said, $30,000 is probably a fair number as a guess. But because the sewer fund is an enterprise fund, do we adjust or don’t adjust that? It is not necessarily going to adjust the $30,000 shortfall because that is coming out of the general fund.” 

Councilwoman Weeks asked if rates are raised now, would an increase be needed next year, since this increase would just break even. Duncan said until everything shakes out, he doesn’t have an answer. If additional funding for the sewer project is needed, that could come in form of a grant or a loan. 

Godfrey said the sewer project needs to be done right. “But sticking the old people $758 a year for sewer … it might not bother me, you or Chuck but someone on Social Security that may be making $800 a month is where I am at.” 

Duncan explained what the proposed increase would be. Residents with a ¾-inch pipe would pay $454.80 annually plus water usage. There are 51 large users who would pay $669 a year. Out-of-towners would pay around $520. 

Hopkin said large users can afford the increase. The town needs to think about the rest of the users. He continued that he doesn’t like to raise the rates but that the fund needs to be solvent. They can’t have one fund subsidizing another one. 

Duncan added, “Truthfully, you really can’t when it is an enterprise fund. You can use enterprise funds to substitute into the general fund or capital construction, but you can’t use enterprise funds to subsidize each other.” 

The council moved to have Attorney Kent Richins draft the first reading of the proposed rate increase. During the discussion portion, both Dellos and Godfrey asked that at the next meeting for numbers for a smaller increase be presented as an option for residential. The council can review at that time if the lower increase is doable

SEWER LINE DAMAGE 

An email was received by the town regarding damage to a residential sewer line on Hart Avenue. Duncan said the damage was done quite a long time ago when electrical work had been done. Hopkin said he went to the site to look at it. He took pictures and provided them for this meeting. He said the top of the sewer line was cut off when the electrical was put in. The sewer filled up with mud. 

He believes it can be fixed with a couple of pieces of pipes and some fittings. He believes the town should pay for the work. 

Town Attorney Kent Richins said he sent an email to the council that reflected his opinion from a legal standpoint. “From strictly a legal standpoint we shouldn’t have liability because of one, the age. We have a two-year statute of limitations, and they would have to prove that our crew were negligent when they did that.” 

He continued that he understood Hopkin’s point of view about the town paying for it. He does also have a concern about setting a precedence. 

Weeks said she had that concern as well. Duncan noted that when the work was done the crew doing the work called in locates. Homeowners are not the ones that do said locates. “The work wasn’t malicious. It wasn’t negligent by any means.” 

Godfrey added that the town is the one that would have done the locate. He was told not on the homeowner’s property. There are many different factors that come into play.   

Duncan continued that he believes this was a special circumstance because the property wasn’t lived in after the sewer was installed. It has been broken for years but because no one used it, the break wasn’t discovered. Had someone lived there the issue would have been known within a couple of days. 

Hopkin made a motion for the town to pay for the materials needed to fix the sewer line. The motion carried. 

MOSQUITO SPRAY FOR HIRE

 Travis Schriner, who is on the board of Midway Golf, asked the council about spraying the course for mosquitos and what the cost would be. Hopkin noted that Midway purchased a mosquito sprayer a few years ago. He recommended to Schriner that the golf board investigate if that sprayer is still useable.   Schriner will check with the staff at the course. If that board is still interested in the town spraying, the council will provide a rate based on the town’s new fee schedule. 

 The council added mosquito spraying rates to the agenda so they could discuss further. Harrison said the cost of labor is $60 an hour. The cost of truck is $40 an hour. The mosquito fog is $135 an hour. The total is $135 an hour plus chemical cost. He believes the chemical is $100 a gallon. It takes the crew 3 to 3 ½ hours to spray the town using about 8 gallons. The town is using a different chemical this year so the machine will have to be recalibrated. He reckons it will be a three-ounce rate vs. the six-ounce rate it was. So roughly a gallon an hour. 

Hopkin recalls the golf course took about 2 ½ hours to spray. Harrison said he would like to see the town given priority for spraying. Hopkin agreed that the town spraying should come first. Duncan added up the numbers and said the rate would be $235 an hour. 

Godfrey recalled that when the town sprayed outside of town previously it was pointed out that there were private contractors that spray. The town was taking business away from them. However, at this time, there is no one that does contract spraying that they know of. 

Hopkin made a motion to add a cost for contract mosquito spraying (out of town limits) to the town’s policy for $135 an hour plus chemical. The motion passed.

In other business:

• Building permits for Flintcroft on South Seventh and Crane on Hart Ave were reviewed and approved. 

 • The council reviewed and approved a contract for use of the Basin Rec building between the town, rec and school board. The contract will be sent to the other parties for their review. 

• An EPA Sanitary Survey is available at the town for the public to review should they want to.