Export will vote again, with full council, on $5 sewage rate hike
Share this post:
Export Mayor Joe Zaccagnini broke a contentious tie vote last month over whether to approve a $5 monthly increase in local sewage rates, passing along a roughly 8% rate hike by the Franklin Township Municipal Sanitary Authority.
Next month, the issue will come back before a full council for another vote.
“People throughout town are very upset about this,” Councilman John Nagoda said. “When we voted on this last month, we didn’t have a full council. I would like for the full council to vote on this so the people we represent know where we all stand.”
Council voted in 2020 to impose an $8 monthly sewage surcharge to help fund improvements required by the borough’s long-term flood-control project as well as its mandatory participation in two state consent orders. Much of it went to monitors tracking the flow of sewage in the system, which had to remain in place three months longer than expected.
At the time, council members said the surcharge would be in place for a year. But when it came up for a vote in May 2021, council voted 5-2 to keep it in place.
Nagoda and Vince Harding voted to do away with the surcharge. Harding was not present for council’s July 2022 vote to add $5 to local bills, a 3-3 tie broken by the mayor’s vote in favor of imposing the rate hike.
Borough solicitor Adam Long said Export officials are in the same boat as all other FTMSA client communities, having to either absorb or pass along the costs of the authority overhauling much of its system under its consent order with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.
“The folks up here are doing the best they can to control costs,” Long said.
MORE EXPORT SEWAGE NEWS
• Export officials vote to keep $8 sewage surcharge in place
• Export officials: Sewage surcharge to remain in place for now
Part of the DEP consent order involves smoke testing, with the borough required to fix defects.
“If you were up on Italy Road when we were doing smoke testing, you’d have the thought the sidewalk was on fire,” council President Barry Delissio said, estimating the cost to fully fix the lines along Italy Road could top $660,000.
Nagoda said the borough should pursue more state and federal grant funding in order to keep sewage costs under control.
“We got the biggest grant in the history of this valley, $11 million, for our flood control project,” Nagoda said. “We’ve had some success with this type of thing. We don’t have to take it from the people who get up every day and go to work.”
Nagoda’s motion to put the $5 rate hike back on council’s September agenda was approved by a 5-2 vote — Delissio and Councilman James Mahinske voted no.
July’s $5 rate hike went into effect with August’s sewage bills.
The next council meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 6 at the borough building, 5821 Washington Ave.