By KEVIN NEVERS

It’s getting to be that time again, spring in an even-numbered year, when the Chesterton Utility’s fancy turns to the biennial rate review.

At its meeting Monday night, the Utility Service Board agreed by consensus to tentatively schedule a rate-review workshop with its financial consultant, H.J. Umbaugh & Associates, for 6 p.m. April 16 at the wastewater treatment plant at 300 League Lane in Porter.

The last two times the Utility conducted a rate review, in the springs of 2006 and 2004, a hike was the result:

•Approved in 2006, an increase of 34 percent which took effect Jan. 1, 2007. The average single family’s bimonthly bill rose from approximately $49.30 to $66, or around $8.35 per month.

•Approved in 2004, a two-phase increase of 5.8 percent, which took effect Jan. 1, 2005, and then 5 percent, which took effect Jan. 1, 2006. In the first year the average single family’s bimonthly bill rose from $44.30 to $46.91, or $1.31 per month; in the second year, to $49.30, or $1.20 per month.

At the Service Board’s January meeting, President Larry Brandt predicted that this year’s biennial rate review would prompt another “sizable rate increase.”

Land Acquisition

In other business, the Service Board voted 4-0 to authorize a claim of $43,250 for the acquisition of a piece of land at the southeast corner of Dickinson Road and East Porter Ave. needed for the expansion and upgrade of the Dickinson Road lift station. Member Scot McCord was not in attendance.

Utility Superintendent Steve Yagelski told the Service Board that the owners of the property in question, John and Linnea Forchetti and Knoefel and Janet Jones have accepted the Utility’s offer. Member John Schnadenberg thanked them for expediting the transaction. “We really appreciate them working with us,” he said.

Under an agreement with the Utility, the Lake Erie Land Company is legally obligated to upgrade that lift station at its own expense.

Purchases

By votes of 4-0, the Service Board approved the following expenditures:

•$2,400 on six safety life rings and cabinets for use on the aeration tanks at the wastewater treatment plant, in the event of someone’s falling into one of the tanks.

•$2,500 for a new ammonia meter and $500 for an accompanying probe. Yagelski noted that the current meter is 15 years old and replacement parts are no longer available.

•$1,706 for a new spectrophotometer for use in the testing lab. Again, Yagelski said the current instrument is 15 years old and replacement parts are not available.

February in Review

In February Chesterton used 73.12 percent of its 3,794,000 million gallon per day (gpd) allotment of the wastewater treatment plant; Porter, 75.61 percent of its 725,000 gpd allotment; the Indian Boundary Conservancy District, 88.38 percent of its 81,000 gpd allotment; and the plant as a whole, 74.2 percent of its capacity. No bypasses were recorded last month. In February the Utility ran a deficit of $208,028 and in the year-to-date is running a deficit of $108,264.

Posted 3/18/2008