Residents upset about rates

BRYANT — A few property owners expressed outrage at Tuesday’s town board meeting about a sewer rate increase for unoccupied homes, heatedly arguing the town was unfairly shifting the burden to their properties.
Clarel and Kay Strausburg criticized councilmen Warren Boice and Leo Kahn (board president Jason Meinerding was absent) about the sewer increases passed in May.
That increase hiked the unoccupied building rate to $29.85 from $7 a month, while only increasing the occupied home rate to $29.85 from $24.85.
The town board also instituted a rate of $10 for vacant properties with a capper sewer connection, which formerly was not charged, and increased the metered rate to $6 per 1,000 gallons, up from $4.
Clarel Strausburg said he couldn’t believe the town would choose to raise the unoccupied rate by about 326 percent, while only raising the occupied rate by about 20 percent.
“It seems like we’re being singled out,” he said.
Kay Strausburg stressed several times that the couple willingly paid the former $7 rate and probably wouldn’t have minded if the new increase had been on par with other properties.
“If this was $5, I wouldn’t even be here,” she said.
The increases were enacted to help make debt payments on the $75,000 the town must borrow to provide matching funds for a $600,000 grant.
The total project cost is estimated to be $750,000, with $600,000 from the grant, $75,000 in Economic Development Income Tax funds from the Jay County Council and Bryant Economic Development Corporation, and the remaining $75,000 from the loan.
There are approximately 150 lots with sewer service in the town, with about 30 of those lots unnoccupied.
The project will revamp sewer lines in town as well as install a new storm water drain to alleviate surface flooding problems in the town.
At the May meeting, part of the town board’s reasoning for hiking the unoccupied rate was to try to motivate owners to fill empty properties.
Clarel Strausburg said that it is not economically viable to sink money into repairs for the amount of rent that the building would earn.
Other attendees expressed similar displeasure with the increase, viewing it as a punishment, not an opportunity.[[In-content Ad]]