council mtg 1/6/2010

Town news 1/8/2010

At the town council meeting on Jan 6th Don Engerer was voted in as president and I was voted in a vice president.
We had a presentation from Mat Klein director of Indianapolis water. They are currently in the process of asking the Indiana utility regulatory commission for another rate increase. They had an emergency one this summer of 10% and are now asking for an additional 35% which if approved will take effect by summers end.
The issue, as he states it is that most utilities have about 15% of their debt in variable rate bonds and that IWWD had almost 60% when he took over in March of 2009. Then with the economic situation being what it is, the bonds were adjusted by the holders to a shorter payoff and a higher rate which meant that they could in no way make the payments. He has since gotten all of the debt into fixed rates.
He stated that they are about, if I got this right, 918 million in debt with more federal mandates coming in and the need to build safety and backup supply methods has forced them to ask for this increase. Most residents will see about $8-10 dollars a month more on their water bill. This will not change the sewer bills or rates. Those are set by the town and I am still trying to get them down.
He also discussed the water conservation ordinance that Marion county put into effect this year. The town being in two counties is looking at a similar ordinance but it would really only effect the Hancock county side since the Marion ordinance would take precedent. It basically says that during drought times the mayor of Indianapolis can declare a water emergency which would restrict water of lawns, washing of cars at home, filling of pools, etc. until the all clear is given. The reason for the ordinance is that the water company, at times of drought, can not keep up with normal demand forcing them to spend more to bring in backup or over work their equipment.
I think residents in my district do a fairly good job of conserving already so I do not anticipate this being much of an issue.
We also passed the ordinance for the Fire contract that I negotiated with Buck Creek fire department. We recently paid 180 thousand for 2008 and 190 thousand for 2009. They had asked a couple of years ago to have us pay 250 thousand but I felt that was to much of an increase. It would have meant that the Cumberland portion of Buck Creek township would be paying about 1/3 of their budget but we only have about 25% of the number of homes. I also feel that we have an economy of scale on our side as we are a big portion or their budget in one contract. We were also given the option of giving up fire coverage by the town and allowing the township to bill directly on our tax bills. I did not feel that was a viable option at this time as it would have meant our property tax bills going up with no control over how much.
The agreement we reached is that we would increase or payments by 10 thousand each of the next 2 years to finish out the contract then we can evaluate what we can do from there. This would put us at 210 thousand by 2011. Compared to 250 thousand a year that they were asking for we saved 150 thousand over the three year contract.
Winter is here so everyone stay warm and safe and let us know of any issues or concerns.

Joe Siefker
Town councilman dist 5