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Huron Expositor, 2007-01-17, Page 7- ..i......oi.,; g_..wn•...=Zi::. w�'! ^Y�,;_, r•.:Si w i:.ri:'.: The Huron Expositor • January 17, 2007 Page 7 News Water rates up to $30 a month in Seaforth Huron East charges same rates for water and sewer in Seaforth and Brussels Susan Hundertmark GEMEMEND Even with the approved hike to water and sewer rates in Huron East, ratepayers will still be paying less for each every day than a small cup of Tim Hortons coffee. "For comparative purposes, for the price of one coffee, you'll be hav- ing all the water you want every day, 365 days a year," pointed out Deputy -Clerk Brad Knight in a pre- sentation to Huron East council on Jan. 9. Water rates rose from $20.50 a month to $30 a month in Seaforth a n d Brussels, bringing the cost to 99 cents a Huron East creates doctor recruitment committee Huron East council has established a doc- tor recruitment com- mittee and is sending letters to eight local groups asking them to appoint representa- tives. Mayor Joe Seili will represent Huron East council on the commit- tee. Groups being asked for representatives include the Huron Family Health Team, the Seaforth Community Development Trust, the Seaforth Community Hospital Foundation, the Seaforth Community Hospital Trust, the Huron East economic development committee, the Local Advisory Committee (LAC) of the Seaforth Community Hospital, the Huron East Chamber of Commerce and the Seaforth doc- tors. Seili said the doctor recruitment committee will not be a committee of council. "We want to help the hospital and show them council is behind it. We want to be there to greet the doctors, give them a sense of the community and how the community can stand behind them," he said. day. Knight compared those rates to $49.81 a month in Clinton, $27.57 a month in Goderich, $39.25 a month in Erxeter and $18 a month in Wingham. He said water and sewage rates were last reviewed in 2003 and the new rates were established to recov- er the cost of water upgrades within 10 years. "But, we haven't finished the upgrades in Seaforth yet so there's a little uncertainty of what the rates should be in Seaforth," he said. However, Knight said the goal is to create the same base rates in both Seaforth and Brussels. He said he used a calculation rate of a 2:1 ratio of revenue to operating expenses. So, in Brussels, $245,400 in rev- enue would be required to cover 2006 operating expenses of $122,700, leading to a required rate of $29.10 a month. The total is rounded to $30 a month "to hedge against inflation," said Knight's report. In Brucefield, the same calcula- tion leads to an increase to $48.93 a month from the current $33.33 a month but council decided on an amount'slightly less at $45 a month. In Vanastra, the current water rate of 82 cents a cubic metre was raised to $1.85 a cubic metre because of increased water rates by Central Huron, which supplies water to the urban area in Vanastra. "It's a significant jump. We are more than doubling the rates in Vanastra," said Knight. Because of Central Huron's increases, water purchase costs in Vanastra go up from $89,000 in 2006 to $109,000 in 2007. "Don't we have the alternative of drilling a well in Vanastra?" asked McKillop Coun. Bill Siemon. "No, we've been down that road," answered Deputy -Mayor Bernie MacLellan. Sewage system upgrades are also planned in Seaforth and Vanastra with Seaforth's upgrade projected at $1.875 million over the next two years and Vanastra's upgrade at $950,000. lb keep Seaforth's sewage rate at the same level as Brussels', the municipality set them both at $31.50 a month. Knight pointed out that Huron East has applied for a COMRIF (Canada Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Funding) grant for the third time for a bypass retention system for the Vanastra sewage sys- tem but an answer has not been received yet. The review of municipal fees and charges included raising building permits and inspections by an aver- age of 25 per cent since they have remained unchanged since 2001. In his report, Knight showed how cost recovery for building permits has gone down since 2001 to 67 per cent in 2006. "YOUR RENOVATION AND HOME SPECIALISTS!" Excavating Inc. t Derrick195 2- VanDriel9 iCCC>• 519-522-0609 Simon VanDriel 519-482-3783 Call us tor... 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