The Helmsburg Regional Sewer Board is taking steps to try to prevent customers’ rates from rising much higher. But they’re probably going to need to go up some just to cover operating costs, the board’s accountant says.
During a more than 2 1/2-hour meeting on Jan. 25, the board decided to proceed with a plan to do their own billing, cutting Brown County Water Utility out of their operation as much as possible.
They also voted to move forward with the process of raising their rates.
Starting this month, BCWU is going to charge the Helmsburg sewer district an additional $10.25 per customer to do sewer billing, board member Harrietta Weddle said at the board’s Jan. 21 meeting. The board called two meetings in the same week to deal with these issues.
Right now, the water charge and the sewer charge come on one bill, and the sewer charge is dependent on how much water a customer uses.
The minimum sewer charge is currently $70 per month, but some customers pay more than that. Chairman Denise Broussard said her sewer bill is $120, and that’s for two people.
The minimum sewer rate had been $45 since 2001. When it went up last spring, it was because BCWU was raising its bill handling fees from $3.50 per customer to $10.25 per customer.
BCWU raising the billing fee to $20.50 per customer would add $1,300 or so onto the bills the board already has to pay each year, Broussard told the nine customers who attended the Jan. 25 meeting.
She said the board plans to break its contract with BCWU in March.
“We’re going to be looking at an increase. There’s no way around it,” Broussard said.
“We’re not going to be able to function if we don’t raise our rates.”
To be able to do its own billing, the Helmsburg sewer district board will need to buy billing software, get access to a computer and printer, find a way to mail out bills and receive payments, and employ someone to do that work.
The board’s accountant is planning to submit a bid to do the billing in time for the next meeting on Feb. 18. A person from the Gnaw Bone area also expressed interest, Broussard said, but the board didn’t have a formal proposal from her at the time, either.
Broussard said she’d had initial conversations with the Gnaw Bone Regional Sewer Board about sharing billing operations and costs, but no agreements had been reached.
Board member Jenny Austin has been pressing the other board members on whether it will actually be cheaper for Helmsburg to do its own billing or if another solution could be found.
What will it cost?
The sewer board also will have to figure out how to charge people for sewer if their bill is not going to be based on how much water they use, since they will no longer be getting water use information for most customers from BCWU. They’re looking at doing a flat rate for most customers.
For that reason, a rate study also will be occurring soon, Broussard said.
Looking at preliminary numbers, based on what’s been needed to cover the district’s expenses for the past five years, the board’s accountant estimated residential sewer bills to come to about $82.25 per month — but that’s not definite yet, he said.
Moving to a flat sewer rate instead of a metered rate could have advantages for the customer, Broussard said. Residents could budget how much sewer service would cost them each month, she said. They wouldn’t have to worry as much about how much water they use for washing their cars or their house, or watering their gardens; their sewer bill wouldn’t go up because of it.
For businesses in the Helmsburg sewer district, the new sewer charge might still be based on usage, board members said, because it didn’t seem fair to charge the same amount to a small place like the Helmsburg General Store as it would to a large-use customer like Helmsburg Elementary School.
How business sewer bills will be figured will depend on what the Indiana Department of Environmental Management allows the board to do, Broussard said. At the time of the Jan. 25 meeting, the board didn’t have those specifics. They also didn’t know what IDEM would consider to be a business — such as whether or not churches would fall into that category.
Collection issues
The Helmsburg sewer district doesn’t always take in enough money each month to meet its expenses. More than once, Weddle said she has reached into her own checkbook to pay bills.
Expenses for December were around $6,000. Sewer customers owed $10,425.08. The board was only able to collect $6,227.43 after paying the billing fees to BCWU. “And most of the time we don’t even take in $6,000,” Weddle said. “We did this month, but we usually don’t.”
Unpaid sewer bills are a big problem, board members said. As of December, the district had more than $4,000 in liens, which are debts tacked onto customers’ property records.
“It’s good to have the sewer. It’s good, I think, for our community,” Broussard said. “But I think it comes with a cost. It came with a high cost. And I think those costs are going to increase. It’s just the nature of the beast, because everything we have to treat the things with is going up; other people’s services are going up.” Helmsburg’s plant operator hasn’t had a raise in five years, at least, she said.
Customers at the Jan. 25 meeting suggested ways for the board to cut expenses. One idea was billing property owners when their tanks have to be pumped out after they haven’t been paying their bill, instead of the sewer board absorbing that charge. That would require the board’s bylaws to be changed.
Another idea, which Broussard suggested at the board’s Jan. 21 meeting, was to stop sending out separate disconnect notices when a customer was late paying their bill. A notice is already listed on the original bill, so sending out 18 separate disconnect notices per month was costing extra postage, she said. The board voted on Jan. 25 to change this practice, but it won’t take effect for two or three months until after a public hearing and other legal steps, Broussard said.
Audience members also suggested going to county government for help, like the Brown County Regional Sewer District did when it needed $270,000 in startup money. Broussard and Weddle said they’ve been advised that the Helmsburg district isn’t allowed to do that.
Helmsburg has needed help for a long time, they said. When the For Bare Feet sock factory burned in 2011, county leaders did not rush to keep that major employer and major sewer customer in the county. The factory moved to Martinsville. “That’s influencing a lot of our problems,” Broussard said. The factory brought in $1,200 to $1,500 a month to the sewer district, and suddenly it dropped to zero, Weddle said.
“You business owners need to talk to your commissioners,” Broussard said. “That was unfair of them to put that burden on this community. … Helmsburg has been forgotten. They’ve not tried to help us at all. We’ve been running on our own.”
If Helmsburg were to pick up the Bean Blossom area as a customer, that would help a lot, she said.
The Brown County Regional Sewer District is currently designing a sewer project to serve central Bean Blossom and other nearby clusters of homes such as Woodland Lake, Little Fox Lake and Freeman Ridge. That board has expressed interest in working with Helmsburg, but the two boards have been unable to come to any agreements on how to do that.
Broussard said she thinks the area the BCRSD wants to serve — involving about 240 customers — is too big for the Helmsburg plant to handle, but the Helmsburg board hasn’t received information on how much wastewater could potentially come to its plant, so she doesn’t really know if taking Bean Blossom on as a customer would be possible.
“We will take some of (their flow), but I won’t put Helmsburg in debt to increase our plant for them,” Broussard said.
Helmsburg Regional Sewer District is the smallest of the three sewer districts in Brown County. It currently has 63 customers. The other two functional sewer utilities are Gnaw Bone and Nashville. Every other resident and business in the county must use on-site septic systems for wastewater treatment.
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Starting Monday, Feb. 18, Helmsburg Regional Sewer District Board meetings will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the lower level of the Brown County Public Library in Nashville. Meetings occur on third Mondays.
Meetings had been hosted by Brown County Community Church in Helmsburg, but the library will give the board access to internet and a printer, said board Chairman Denise Broussard. It also is a more central location in case it has to meet jointly with other boards, she said.
Helmsburg General Store owner Sharon Richey was talking about organizing a carpool of Helmsburg residents who might need a ride into Nashville on Feb. 18.
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