The draft sewer budget for Cobden shows a five per cent increase, which is a far cry from the 35 per cent increase of last year.
Whitewater Region Treasurer Marsha Hawthorne recalled that the large increase last year was mainly a catch-up increase. While there were increases in 2011 (15.89%), 2012 (1%), 2013 (5%), 2014 (10.95%) and 2015 (35%), there was no increase from 2005 to 2010.
“If there had been a five per cent increase all those years, there would not have been one big one,” she said.
The proposed budget is about an $11,000 decrease from last year, however, there are less users, which means an increase for the 421 residential and commercial users, she said.
This year’s draft budget totals $448,558, while last year’s actual is $462,311, unless there are bills submitted by the end of January, Ms. Hawthorne said.
For those who pay the bills, she said the current residential rate is $169.83 quarterly and that will increase to $178.32, or just under $9 a quarter.
As for less users, Ms. Hawthorne said there were some property owners who were able to receive a lower rate due to vacant buildings. Also, when people go away for extended periods of time, they can ask for their water to be shut off, which means they are not charged for sewer usage, she said. However, there is a fee for turning the water off and turning it on again, Ms. Hawthorne added.
Mayor Hal Johnson noted the requests for reduced rates, or shutting off the water, is due to economics.
“People have less money to play with,” he said.
Unfortunately, the township has less as well, which means increases, he added.
Another reason for the lower budget is that last year $70,000 was put into reserves while this year only $8,000 is going into reserves, Ms. Hawthorne said.
The proposed expenditure of $50,000 for a backup generator is not in this year’s budget, but has been put over to 2017 and 2018. There is still $40,000 to pay off the cast-in-place project from last year, so it was decided to propose that the generator be equally split in 2017 and 2018, she explained.
Ms. Hawthorne said these are only proposed figures, which council had opportunity to review at a recent meeting.
