East Providence council rejects immediate call for water/sewer rate hikes

Wants to pursue other avenues before considering increases

By Mike Rego
Posted 4/18/19

EAST PROVIDENCE — Before the council considers raising sewer rates to help offset existing and projected water authority deficits, it wants to exhaust all ways of potentially saving money …

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East Providence council rejects immediate call for water/sewer rate hikes

Wants to pursue other avenues before considering increases

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — Before the council considers raising sewer rates to help offset existing and projected water authority deficits, it wants to exhaust all ways of potentially saving money within the current setup.
Ward 4 Councilman Ricardo Mourato raised the delicate subject at the April 16 council meeting. He and his peers all agreed there are existing avenues they could pursue prior to hiking fees, something a consultant recently recommended and said was necessary.
At the same workshop held two weeks where a discussion was had about the sources of the city’s water, the council and Mayor Bob DaSilva also were given a review of the long-discussed sewer rates scenario.
Dave Fox, New England office manager for Raftelis Financial Consultants, the firm hired by the city to conduct a thorough review of its water authority, made the presentation.
Mr. Fox, repeating what he told the previous council and then city manager some 18 months ago, told those assembled at the workshop held in Room 306 at city hall he was concerned about what it takes to “keep the lights on” when it comes to operating the system.
He said the water authority was about $500,000 in the red last fiscal year, a number substantiated by City Finance Director Malcolm Moore, was headed to a deficit nearing $600,000 the current fiscal year and would approach being approximately $860,000 in debt by the end of FY19-20 if the status quo was maintained.
To recoup the shortfall and to have a means of paying back existing bond expenditures, Mr. Fox said the authority needs in the neighborhood of a 16 percent increase in both usage and fixed charges, while also recommending the some 300 cubic foot usage allowance be immediately scrapped or phased out.
Last week, Mr. Mourato said, although he reached out to Department of Public Works Director Steve Coutu through the mayor’s office for some added insight, he still had several questions about the matter.
One had to do with the possible renegotiation of the contract with the Suez company to operate the city’s wastewater plant in Riverside. Another was to look at the agreement between the city and Barrington to treat the latter's wastewater at the same Riverside location. A third was about the cost effectiveness of returning operation of the Riverside plant to the city. A fourth was to consider potentially selling or giving oversight of the Riverside plant to the Narragansett Bay Commission, which already owns and runs the Bucklin Point plant in Rumford and charges the city accordingly.
A fifth was something broached earlier at the April 16 meeting by Ward 1 member and council president Bobby Britto, pertaining to the collection of delinquent accounts. Customers throughout the city are said to be several hundreds of thousands of dollars worth in arrears.
Ward 3 Councilor Nate Cahoon said he would like the body to pursue both the expenditures the city pays to the NBC and revenue coming from Barrington before considering any hikes. Barrington, per an agreement originally signed in 1963 and that actually expired in 1978 but has been rolled over since, pays approximately 20 percent of the $14 million it costs to operate the Riverside plant.
“Before we look at any kind of rate increase, I think those are two areas we need to look at. And I know the mayor is focused in on that, too,” Mr. Cahoon said.
Said Mr. Mourato, “Do they pay 20 percent of that whole operating costs? That was an agreement that was done in the 70s and it really should be reexamined. Some of the shortfalls that we have apparently, right now its $500,000…I think that’s something that’s easily attainable before we start looking at raising these rates.”
School resolutions
The council last week approved two resolutions regarding schools in the city.
One sponsored by Mr. Britto in support of providing a complete tax exemption for the Providence Country Day School will now be sent to the General Assembly for its necessary approval.
Mr. Britto, who said the local delegation of assembly members is backing the measure, said PCD currently pays
approximately $5,600 in taxes on a parcel of its land that is not already exempt. While noting his children attend the school, he said there was no conflict of interest in sponsoring resolution, according to outside legal counsel he sought.
“I’m not saying this because my kids attend the school. I say it because it’s fair,” Mr. Britto said, adding no other school pays taxes on the property it uses for educational purposes.
The council also backed a measure sponsored by Mr. Cahoon authorizing the mayor’s office to waive permitting fees associated with the soon-to-begin construction of a new East Providence High School.
The estimated $1.6 million in permitting costs is not included in the $189.5 million outlay approved by voters at the November 2018 election, said Mr. Cahoon, who is co-chair of the new EPHS Building Committee. The structure will be inspected by the proper city officials, he added, while also being overseen by the school district’s project manager, East Providence-based Peregrine Group.
In supporting the resolution, At-Large Councilor Bob Rodericks said, "It seems foolish to take a million dollars plus from the school project to put it from one pocket to another pocket in the city…(The waiver) makes nothing but sense to me."
Correction
Laura A. McNamara, executive director of the East Providence Area Chamber of Commerce, was one of the first voting commissioners appointed to the Waterfront Commission by the City Council when it was created in 2004 making her the first female voting member of the body not, as mentioned at the April 2 council meeting and in a story on the matter that appeared in the April 11 edition of The Post, the newest commission member Jennifer Griffith. Ms. McNamara served on the commission from 2004-2006.

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MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.