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HUBBARD — Officials noted Environmental Protection Agency requirements for lead service lines as part of the uncertainty faced in forecasting city finances.
At a meeting earlier this week, Councilman Mike Kerr, D-4th Ward, asked the law director to draw up legislation for an ordinance declaring the rates and charges for the use of the wastewater treatment plant’s facilities and sewage system.
Kerr noted in a utilities committee that the rates officials did five years ago are going to expire, and the EPA is putting a “massive amount of legislation” on many communities.
Kerr added officials want to be proactive regarding replacements with sewers, cameras and other needed items.
“We hear infrastructure is old everywhere, and we’re trying to keep up with sewer lines, water lines and trying to keep ahead of the game,” Kerr said. “Because, down the road, the feds and EPA is going to put more restrictions and more restrictions and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.”
Raftelis, a North Carolina-based public-sector management and financial consulting firm that specializes in advising local governments and utilities, handled the study.
The company recommended a one-time 20% rate increase in 2027 to cover for a shortfall driven by growth in operating costs, with annual increases of 10% to follow, according to the study obtained Thursday.
Regarding the water system, an 8% Adjustment to Base rate increase was recommended throughout the forecast period, to prepare for “significant capital expenditures” anticipated in the next five to 10 years.
Kerr said they were looking at a six-year plan, which Service Director Ed Palestro pushed back on.
“I’d hate to say we’re going to go to 2032 based on a study, and here we are, handcuffing ourselves into situations where we can’t even predict where we may be in 2028,” Palestro said.
Palestro said three to five years would be a more realistic timeframe, adding that he doesn’t know of any entities looking out any further than that.
City Auditor Michael Villano said the city has not had a sewer adjustment in 17 years, agreeing with Palestro’s concerns about forecasting years out.
“Every one of us in this room knows what you bought in 2010 doesn’t cost anywhere near what it costs today,” Villano said. “Water, we know, has been a struggle for several years now — we go through this every budgetary cycle.”
Villano said the city’s wholesale water purchasing cost is not getting any cheaper, adding that fuel and inputs such as chemicals have gone up in the last few years, making both the city’s wastewater and sewer need attention “sooner, rather than later.”
Palestro said they have capital improvement plans in place and projected projects, but the lead service lines are an “unknown” that keeps changing as they speak, noting that the EPA has mandated the city have at least 10% replaced by 2034.
“The EPA and their mandates, whether they’re realistic or not, is irrelevant right now,” Palestro said. “But we have to prepare for it, and every department has a capital improvement plan.”
Villano said he’s met with engineering consultants, where the cost has come between several hundred thousands and several millions.
“It’s not a question whether we want to, or we’re not going to do it — we have to do it,” Villano said.
Villano said it was “mind-boggling” to expect every small community to come up with the funds to tackle the line replacements, but Hubbard still needs to be in a position to keep pushing forward.
Villano said he believes the city has replaced around 30 lead service lines, but the city has potentially well over 1,500, which cost $9,000 apiece to replace.
“It becomes real money real fast — we got $200,000 from the state of Ohio as a grant, but that didn’t even put a nick in what eventually, we’re going to be required to do,” Villano said.
Regarding Raftelis’s suggested 20% sewer increase, Mayor Ben Kyle said he thinks they need to make changes, but that amount would be a “big pill to swallow.”
Palestro said it would be an approximate $3 impact on customers, going at a base rate of $18.40.
Villano reminded officials that the rate hasn’t changed in 16 years.
“My argument would be, you’re not even keeping up with inflation, and our costs, even though we’re a city, inflation is not immune to the city,” Villano said. “We pay what everyone else pays — there’s no point in entertaining any rate increase if the whole point is, we don’t want to raise anybody’s rate.”
“I don’t want to pay the $4 a month or $3 a month, whatever it is, but I get the reality of it. If you want to flush your toilet or wash water down your sink, it’s the cost of doing business.”
Officials ultimately agreed to request the legislation be drawn up and introduced, so that it could officially be put on the table, reviewed, and voted on at a subsequent meeting.