By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior reporter

                Sewer rates could be going sky-high in Bronson in the near future.

            A consultant has recommended raising sewer rates by 25 percent for the next two years to boost revenues.

            Andrew Greene of the Florida Rural Water Association said sewer rates would rise every year after that by 5 percent.

            Council members unanimously passed a resolution instructing City Attorney Steven Warm to draft a resolution for board consideration at its next meeting to raise sewer rates by the proposed amounts.

            The council, as an alternative, instructed Warm to draft a second resolution that would raise water and sewer rates based on the Consumer Price Index which was 8.3 percent in August.

            The sticker shock from hearing the proposed back-to-back 25 percent increases in sewer rates left the council temporarily speechless, but after recovering, they said they couldn’t afford to continue losing barrels of money on providing sewer services to residents and businesses.

            Town Manager Susan Beaudet said the sewer system is losing about $66,000 annually with current rates. The town makes up for the losses using money from drinking water revenues.

            Beaudet said the sewer system isn’t producing enough revenue to make the annual $75,000 sewer loan payment. The town received a grant and loan from the USDA to extend sewer services primarily to the business district in hopes of attracting new businesses and growing the town’s property tax revenue.

            The city has attracted only one new business since the sewer system was extended to the business district. The Jiffy food mart, gas station, Hardee’s restaurant, and liquor store opened in April of this year.

            The city traditionally has operated a combined water and sewer fund and bills are paid for each utility out of that single fund, but combining the two tends to mask the losses in sewer.

            Greene separated the water and sewer for the purposes of conducting a rate study and presented council members with the results of the study at the Dec. 19 council meeting.

            “Obviously we recommend doing something. Something’s better than nothing,” Beaudet said. “If we can at least take the CPI, it’s better than nothing. I recommend we do something. We don’t want to continue down this path.”

            Greene said he realizes he is recommending 25 percent increases in sewer rates for two years in a row, but he said the council could do the first 25 percent for next year and then at budget time of the following year look at whether the second 25 percent is needed, or if a lesser amount would work.

            “We’ve got to do something. The question is how much,” said Councilman Tyler Voorhees. We can’t lose $70,000 a year,” he said.

            Council members could choose the CPI rather than the huge sewer increases but Greene said the water and sewer fund has no reserve funds at this point.

            Part of the problem is the $75,000 sewer loan payment is a big burden on the town, and a second part of the problem is that the cost of operating the water and sewer plants has doubled since the town hired Two-Fold Water Engineering to run the facilities. The city has no staff qualified to operate the plants.

            Public Works Director Curtis Stacey said the sewer system has begun to age since it was first installed and there are upkeep costs. The sewer plant itself has recently been updated to replace faulty and failing equipment.

            The council can choose the CPI or the big rate increases at its next board meeting.

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Town of Bronson Regular Meeting December 19, 2022; Posted December 26, 2022