Posted: June 16, 2009

Germantown — An average residential village wastewater utility customer could pay about $47 more a year, or about $12 per quarter, for sanitary sewer service.

The Village Board on Monday postponed its decision on sewer rate increases, but eliminated two options calling for bill calculations based on equalized value.

Utility Advisory Committee member Jim Hansen presented the three options the Public Works Committee forwarded to the board with no recommendation.

"There is a $1 million per-year deficiency between what the village charges its users and what (the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District) charges the village," he said.

The MMSD charge for 2009 was $1.14 per $1,000 of equalized property value for a total of $2.14 million.

The village charges residential customers a quarterly service fee of $20, or $80 per year. Commercial and industrial properties pay a quarterly service fee based on meter size, and the largest one pays $1,184 annually.

All customers also pay $4.32 per 1,000 gallons of flow, a rate that has not been changed since 1997.

Trustees Al Vanderheiden and Art Zabel made a failed attempt to get approved an option that maintained flow rates, but added an equalized property value charge.

"That is not a fair way to collect money," Zabel said.

He said the number of utility customers is increasing, but the amount of water used is decreasing, so it will be difficult to generate enough revenue to pay the utility's expenses.

The board then decided to pursue an option to create a two-tiered flow charge that also increases the service fees for non-residential users.

"I should pay based on what I use," Village President Thomas Kempinski said.

The Utility Advisory Committee recommended increasing the residential flow rate by 15 percent to $4.97 per 1,000 gallons and by 20 percent to $5.18 per 1,000 gallons for other users.

The service fee would remain the same for residential users, but increase by 20 percent for other users.