The senior editor is relaying the Bookseller's live report from the city council chamber and tonight's work session about Georgetown, New Albany and the sewer system that binds.
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This is The Bookseller live-e-mailing what IS a work session (NO VOTE, just talk.)
We have no visual access to the clock...Mr. Coffey is reticent to raise the movie screen unless he's blamed for ripping the silver.
Ron Carroll, recently from the Cardiac Unit, Ed Wilkinson, Sewer Board member, and attorney Lee Buchanan, who represents the Sewer Board, begin the presentation.
First discussion is about the ordinance itself.
A 2005 agreement to provide service to Georgetown for 20 years was renegotiated. G'town elected to withdraw and negotiate a new agreement in 2006 (Amendment 1) and build their own sewage treatment plant. This 30-month agreement (ended Feb. 28, 2009), subsequently extended to date June 1, 2009.
By contract, G-town sewage will continue to be treated. However, they agreed to pay a new "retail" rate instead of the prior "wholesale" rate. Those words are terms of art, not legal or commercial terms.
Georgetown does not pay the fringe 150% rate, but a lesser rate based on their own capital expenditures. Even after this June 1 bumper, the rate is lower than, say, the folks in Gobbler's Knob pay...I'm told it's called "Cobbler's Crossing."
Mr. Buchanan assertively rebuffs the council's (Mr. Zurschmiede) attempt to discuss the "penalty" of $450,000. That contract penalty is, by Mr. Buchanan's reckoning, not subject to council approval, denial, or even comment. That "penalty" for failing to remove the sewage from the system, is not subject to council oversight.
Mr. Coffey asks: How is this related to the need for "sewer credits." We invite more knowledgeable people
"I don't want the people of Georgetown to be caught up...I don't want them to pay. It has been said that we're subsidizing them...Well, I don't think that's right. They're treating their own (?)" MR. COFFEY.
Georgetown, by consensus, contributes 2% of the system's sewerage.
JACK MESSER: Is this treated sewage? Buchanan: No, it's not.
That refutes Mr. Coffey's dictum, but the G-town folks say it is (partially) treated.
$6.74 per 1,000 cubic gallons is the new rate.
Mr. Z says: It's not as simple as the rate. There are lots of complications. If it were simple, it would be simple to calculate the costs.
Mr. McLaughlin: Is the type of "byproduct" from G-town "more offensive?" Buchanan says G-town stuff has higher sulfur (oxide) content is higher, more corrosive.
Remember, folks, that the "other" side will be speaking next.
Ed Wilkinson (newest sewer board member) stands to discuss the chart he handed out showing the first four months of this year, showing flow rates and basic math regarding fees, rates, charges...It seems we're drifting toward rates that are unreasonable for anybody. We want to establish a base line for flow rates, anomalies, etc.
On the basis of the arithmetic...I took the flow rate, actual, the total bill each month, divided it by the $3.11 per 1,000 gallons and assumed either 1.200 or 1,150 customers in G-town.
We (New Albany Sewer Board) charge G-town $14.12 per household in January, 2009. Georgetown charged its residents $74.20...for each "unit" of 1,000 gallons.
New Albany charges actual flow rate (under 5,000 units). G-town estimates 5,000
Wilkinson says NA charges $27 to $30 per month per household under the new rate. G-town rate includes a sinking fund for past and future capital spending.
Georgetown adds up to $47 over and above what New Albany charges.
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