NEW PARIS — The Village of New Paris’ sewer rate will increase by $2.50 as of Jan. 1, 2018. BPA President Norm Smith, along with new member Ed Davies, gave a presentation to the New Paris Village Council regarding increasing ther rates during a meeting on Monday, Dec. 4.

“We have been looking at possibly increasing our sewer rates. Just to let the council know some of the things we have been engaged in, we walked on the board in March of 2016 and our first priority was making sure we were EPA compliant, obviously. We wanted to make sure we had trained employees with the proper certifications, with all of the equipment necessary to execute their jobs,” Smith explained.

He added, they have been instrumental in fixing several village necessities: from checking the water for EPA compliance to fixing the water tower.

“We’re about halfway through our expected life expectancy of our water plant. In 15-17 years that will need attention as well. Our understanding, the last increase happened a few years ago and it was pretty exorbitant, in excess of $8 for the water increase,” Smith explained.

“Our idea is to make gradual increases, as not to effect our residents budgets so much. What we did was, we had our water superintendent look at the average rates of the surrounding villages. For instances: West Manchester sewer rate is $45, Lewisburg is $17.16, Camden $18.55, New Madison is $45, and Eldorado is $20.61. Currently, New Paris’ sewer rate is $12.

“We are by far the lowest of all the surrounding villages.”

In fact, they are $17 bellow the average sewer rate.

Smith then proposed a $2.50 increase in sewer rate, but no increase on the water rate, as the village is right where they need to be in that regard.

“Our sewer rates are so below average that we have a lot of expenses coming up on the sewer system,” Davies said.

Smith said, “The $2.50 increase would bring us up to $14.50 for our sewer rates. That would be effective Jan. 1, 2018. If approved, we would put notice on our next bill going out.”

“Thank you, gentlemen. We’re on the right track. You have to make a minimum rate increase to stay current with the State, that is just the way it is,” Mayor Rick VanWinkle said.

The council approved the BPA’s recommended increase.