Sewer Bills

Annapolis homeowners could see their annual water and sewer bills go up by as much as $67 over the next five years under a plan recommended by engineering consultants.The study by Kansas City-based Black & Veatch Corp. suggests raising the rates by 44 percent this year up to a total of 62 percent to 67 percent by 2004 to enable the Department of Public Works to repair sewer and water pipes without digging into reserve funds or borrowing. The study is to be presented to the city council Monday.

Union Bridge officials are making progress in collecting overdue water and sewer bills.At 1995's end, 35 of the town's 380 accounts were in arrears for approximately $9,000. By the end of 1996, the town staff had cut overdue bills to five accounts in arrears for $1,900."They've worked hard to get accounts up to date," Councilman Selby M. Black, water and sewer committee chairman, reported at Monday's Town Council meeting.He praised Debra Rippeon, clerk, and Melissa Phelps, assistant clerk, for their work.

Taneytown residents no longer will be able to pay water and sewer bills at local banks.The City Council voted Monday to drop the quarterly bank payment option, effective with next month's water and sewer bills.City officials reported that communication glitches with banks caused the city to send overdue notices to several customers who had paid their bills.The city signed an agreement with local banks in January 1995 to collect payments as a convenience to customers.Residents may mail their bills, pay them at City Hall during business hours or leave payments in a 24-hour drop box at the city office entrance, 17 E. Baltimore St.Project Liberty Ship to hold fund-raiserProject Liberty Ship, a preservation group working to save the Liberty ship S.S. John W. Brown, will hold an Adopt-a-Rivet program at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8806, Penrose Street, Union Bridge.

Proposed water and sewer rate increases would mean both good news and bad news for the county's 28,000 water and sewer customers.For most customers, the good news is that their water and sewer bills would remain the same -- at least until next year. The news would be even better for the roughly 3,600 customers who use less than 6,000 gallons of water each year: Their bills would go down because the new rates would be tied more closely to actual consumption.The bad news is that by this time next year, everyone's bills would have increased slightly -- partly to help cover increased operating expenses and partly to pay for a $46 million upgrade of the Sod Run Wastewater Treatment plant in Perryman.

Anne Arundel County lawmakers tonight may reject a call by some of their colleagues to refund $700,000 to homeowners in Linthicum and Broadneck who were charged retroactively for sewer and water service at the county's new, higher rate.The County Council is to vote on a resolution criticizing County Executive John G. Gary for including a 13.5 percent rate increase in those homeowners' water and sewer bills for April, May and June even though the increase did not go into effect until July 1. The resolution also calls for the refund.

In a bid to save time and money, Manchester plans to switch this month to using postcards to bill water and sewer customers.Town Manager Terry L. Short said the town could save about $800 a year by sending bills on postcards instead of in window envelopes -- even after paying to mail the town newsletter separately. The newsletter has been mailed with the water bills.Mr. Short said it costs about 55 cents to print and mail each bill. Switching to postcards will cost about 22 cents to print and mail each bill, plus about 13 cents to mail each newsletter.

The Reeds at Bayview, a mobile home park in Edgewood that has been plagued with financial problems, has had its operating license withheld by Harford County for failure to pay excise taxes and water and sewer bills.The mobile home park in the 3000 block of Pulaski Highway was the only one of 29 parks in the county that did not pass inspection this year, said Richard Lynch of the county's Department of Inspections, Licenses and Permits. Mr. Lynch, chief of housing services, reviews the mobile home parks and renews operating licenses July 1.In an administrative hearing Thursday, county officials reviewed with park owner John P. Seisman their reasons for withholding the license.

MANCHESTER -- Town residents were warned at the beginning of the month to expect a bit of sticker shock when they opened their water and sewer bills."Sticker shock?" said Augusta Road resident Pat Wallman. "This is more like cardiac arrest."A whole lot of folks are clutching their chests as they ponder significantly higher bills that are due today.A standing-room-only crowd of nearly 90 residents came to Town Hall last night to complain of water and sewer bills that have doubled -- or tripled -- for families and businesses.

Harford residents will not be allowed to pay their property taxes, water or sewer bills with a credit card.The County Council voted 6-0 last Tuesday to reject a resolution that would have allowed the credit card payments, saying it didn't want Harford "to get into the credit card business."Some council members also said they were concerned that the bank would get the payments before the county did, delaying the county's receipt of payment.Such payments are allowed under a new state law sponsored by state Sen. William H. Amoss, D-Harford, and Sen. Walter M. Baker, D-Cecil County, but on the condition that the jurisdiction passes specific legislation.

MANCHESTER -- Residents upset with huge increases in their quarterly water and sewer bills that were due last week may be going into tomorrow night's meeting with Town Council members hoping for a change.But, town officials acknowledge, the chances of their changing those rates -- now among the highest in the county -- are close to none."Money is money, and there's nothing we can do to change that," said Councilman John A. Riley, the Hampstead manager who was instrumental in devising the rates that went into effect for water used during April, May and June.

Fewer homes would be subject to tax sales under a compromise reached by legislators and property investors, officials said yesterday. Responding to cases in which local governments -- primarily Baltimore -- have foreclosed on homes over small debts, including unpaid water and sewer bills, legislators have coalesced around a bill that would increase the threshold for debts that can trigger a tax sale, cap attorneys fees and provide a safety net for the...

State lawmakers are considering a moratorium on foreclosures stemming from unpaid water bills, a move that faces stiff opposition from Baltimore City officials who say that many property owners would not pay without the threat of losing their homes. Sen. James Brochin called Baltimore's tax-sale system under which homeowners face foreclosure over unpaid water and sewer bills "absolutely obscene." He said the city should rely on other means of leaning on residents who don't pay their bills, such as shutting off service or assessing late charges and liens that must be paid when a property is sold or refinanced.

A chart on regional water and sewer rates in the April 19 editions included the most current front-foot fees. For the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, only a small portion of customers pay those fees. Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon put on hold yesterday part of a proposed three-year, 30 percent water and sewer rate increase so that the city can review whether it is collecting more money than it needs from ratepayers - temporarily defusing a politically touchy dispute over water bills.

City officials defended yesterday their policy of selling delinquent water bills and other small debts to private debt collectors along with back-tax bills, saying Baltimore would possibly jeopardize its finances if it can't use the threat of foreclosure to collect overdue bills. Their comments came during a hearing of the City Council's Taxation and Finance Committee on a proposal by Bernard C. "Jack" Young, the 12th District councilman, to eliminate water-bill liens from the city's annual tax sale.

If you live in Baltimore and don't pay your water bill, you could lose your home - even if you're as little as $100 in arrears. That simply has to change. A recent report in The Sun outlined the dire consequences of citizens' failure to pay water bills, and it prompted Mayor Sheila Dixon to suggest an amnesty program for those with burdensome bills. But ultimately it will take more than that to protect homeowners and at the same time ensure that the city isn't left holding the bag. It will require changes in state law and reform of the convoluted system the city uses to collect some municipal bills.

Two-thirds of Baltimore's City Council agreed last night to sponsor hastily resurrected legislation to prevent homeowners from losing their homes over unpaid water bills, all but assuring its swift passage. City officials, meanwhile, mulled the feasibility of an amnesty program. Bernard C. "Jack" Young, 12th District councilman, yesterday reintroduced his proposal from 2005 to stop the city from including water-bill debts in its annual sale of liens over back taxes. The bill was withdrawn late last year after administration officials argued that many people would quit paying their water bills without the threat of foreclosure.

UNCLE SAM should be ashamed of himself. The citizens of Maryland, hoping to speed cleanup of the quickly deteriorating Chesapeake Bay, agreed last year through their representatives in Annapolis to pay a special fee for the purpose: a monthly surcharge on water and sewer bills known informally as the "flush tax." Yet the initiative is undermined because federal agencies, which operate some of the biggest polluters in the bay watershed, are balking at paying their share. President Bush should take the advice of Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest and order the Navy, NASA and other deadbeat agencies to pay up before they deal what the Eastern Shore congressman called a "highly detrimental blow to the cooperative spirit of the user-fee initiative."

The Maryland Senate showed strong support yesterday for a broadened version of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s proposal to impose a $2.50 per month charge on Marylanders' water and sewer bills - decisively rejecting an attempt to relieve septic system owners of the same burden. A final vote on the initiative to clean up the Chesapeake Bay is expected today, but a key test vote showed that Senate Democrats will likely muster enough support to pass the bill by a large enough margin to override a veto.

Pushing aside the misgivings of the Ehrlich administration, legislative leaders said yesterday that they plan to make homeowners with septic systems pay the same surcharge to protect the Chesapeake Bay as those on public sewer systems. Sen. Paula C. Hollinger and Del. Maggie L. McIntosh, who are chairwomen of the Senate and House committees handling Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s bill creating a fund to upgrade the state's sewer systems, said the legislation will be amended to ensure that septic system owners do not escape the fee. The legislation, Ehrlich's top environmental initiative of the 2004 session, has won praise from the Democrats who control the General Assembly - even as they labeled it a "flush tax."

Del. Elizabeth Bobo has introduced legislation that would ban the business of using estimates to charge apartment residents for their water and sewer bills within a year, limit the service fees charged by billing companies and impose a stiff fine on any landlord who does not charge residents for their exact usage. The bill, co-sponsored by Harford County Democratic Del. Mary-Dulany James, could give Maryland some of the most strict water-billing regulations in the country. Such states as Oregon, North Carolina and Texas have regulated the industry, and debates over the practice of unmetered billing are raging elsewhere across the nation.