
Compare to our 100% sewer fee hike.
If the Prison were to pay what other large users do (commercial rates), they would have been paying $10,000 per month, and after this April's rate increase, would be required to pay $21,000 per month.
I am outraged! Jim Karris brought this up at the Feb 27th City Council meeting and so far hasn't gotten an adequate response from the City. Kerri Howell is looking into it but he thinks she's going on vacation and so won't have a definitive answer anytime soon.
Apparently, the city struck some sweetheart deal with the Prison over 20 years ago whereby the prison only paid $200 per month. Then about 1 1/2 years ago, for some reason, the City stopped billing them altogether and they haven't paid anything at all since then. What do you think the City would do to me if I stopped paying my sewer bill?
It seems to me that when ever our city deals with the state, we get the short end of the stick. We 're losing $500,000 per year using prison labor to recylce our trash, we can't operate the jail profitably and got into a lawsuit with the state when they wanted to audit that operation. If we're going to sue the state, why not sue them for failure to pay their sewer bill???
I just don't get it. Why should residents and business be required to pay for the improvements & added capacity that's needed when a large user pays nothing?
I'll follow up with Jim and also with Kerri Howell. Let me know if anyone else out there has any info or thoughts.
