Hearing on rate hike is Monday

Portland residents will have the opportunity Monday to comment on a proposed increase to their sewer rate.

Portland City Council will hold a public hearing at its regular 5:30 p.m. meeting Monday on the proposed changes, which would result in a $23 increase to the monthly rate for an average homeowner by 2020. The increases are slated to be introduced gradually over a four-year period.

At its May 1 meeting, council discussed a draft ordinance that would raise sewer rates annually over a four-year period. The rate increases are part of an effort to fund $3.3 million in improvements to the city’s wastewater plant, part of a state mandated long-term control plan.

For a home that uses 4,000 gallons of water a month, the proposed increases would raise rates by $5.75 per month each year for four years, starting July 1 and ending in July 2020. The exact rate increase for a given home or business is based on water usage, meter size and classification.

In 2008, Indiana Department of Environmental Management ordered the city to create a 20-year long term control plan to address the shortcomings of the city’s wastewater system and phase out combined sewer overflows that drain a mixture of stormwater and wastewater into the Salamonie River in high periods of rain. A major facet of the order centers around an overhaul of the facilities at the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

In December 2016, the city was awarded a $600,000 grant from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs to go toward $3.3 million in proposed improvements at the plant. The city has already upgraded tertiary filters at the plant, and the next step in improvements will include work starting in 2019 to install a new oxidation ditch, headworks and UV disinfection.

The remaining $2.7 million in funding for the upgrades will come in the form of a loan from the State Revolving Fund, with the proposed rate increases being used to make payments on the loan. Council will vote on the first reading of the sewer rate increase at the meeting Monday night, and take the second and final vote on the proposed ordinance at its June 19 meeting in order for it to go into effect July 1.