There will be no rate increase for Franklin water and sewer customers in 2021.
Franklin General Authority members unanimously approved operating budgets for both departments at their meeting Tuesday for a combined $5,184,812.
Rate hikes had been considered in preparation for several multi-million dollar projects, including the 15th Street combined sewer overflow project that is anticipated to break ground this spring.
The 15th Street project will move forward faster than ever after authority members agreed Tuesday to accept a loan offered by the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PennVEST).
The $4,347,750 loan will cover not only the project itself but the engineering behind it.
While the authority had been hoping for some, if not all, of the project funding to come from grants, EADS Group engineer Kyle Fritz said he didn’t believe a better offer would come.
The loan comes with a 1% interest rate for 20 years which results in a cost of $6 to $7 per customer, per month. These numbers do not reflect a direct increase in customers’ bills at this time.
Rate increases could also be unlikely in 2022 as well, as the authority will need to apply for even bigger grants in the coming years. Fritz told the authority that based on its current audit, PennVEST is looking for a “magic number” in revenues that the authority currently can’t match.
He said he is expecting that number to go down in the next audit, but he said to “hold the rates steady” until the authority is ready to apply for another grant.
In other business Tuesday, rates geared toward waste, or “sludge” removal remain undecided after two local business owners pleaded their case.
“That’s going to be a hard number for us to pay,” said Chip Heffern, who owns a waste removal service based in the Franklin area.
Preliminary budget talks had shown the authority that sludge removal rates haven’t been touched in more than a decade, leaving Franklin well under the amount being charged by comparable wastewater treatment facilities in the area.
Franklin currently charges 8 cents a gallon while the Knox plant charges 16 cents. At the end of those preliminary budget talks, the authority decided it would double the rate pending approval at a formal meeting.
“To go that far is really going to be detrimental to haulers in the area,” Heffern said, adding that if he increased his own rates to be able to afford utilizing Franklin’s services, he would no longer have a competitive price.
“We’re going to look like crooks,” he said.
Another area waste hauler, Roy “Speedy” Ewing, said he services portable toilets and an 8 cent hike would put him at $80 for one tank.
“It’s an astronomical increase,” he said.
Both Heffern and Ewing said they would most likely be put out of business if the increase were to pass.
“It’ll make it really difficult for the little guys around here,” said Ewing.
About six small businesses depend on Franklin’s sludge removal service, according to wastewater supervisor Glenn Brown. Three of those are based in Franklin or the surrounding area.
“It’s something else for us to consider,” said authority member Peter O’Polka.
The authority didn’t make a decision, and chairman Tim Dunkle agreed the panel would take a deeper look at the rates of other plants before next month’s meeting.
