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Post by BHU on Feb 16, 2019 19:31:22 GMT -5
The county sewer district has announced that they're looking to raise our rates by 4% in April. That's really nice of them to hit users with another rate hike considering the MVWA raiised their rates 2% in January. It never ends. Every single year they're getting these rate increases with no accountability. Every year. Today we recieved our bill, $197.00 for 3 months, even though our consumption has dropped significantly. In the last few years our water/sewer bill has doubled with no end in sight. And next year they'll jack the rates again. If this was another utility that did this to customers our local politicians would be screaming bloody murder, but the MVWA & county sewer district seems to be for some reason immune from any accountability. I think it's high time that the NYS Comptrollers Office did a forensic audit of both these outfits to find out what they're doing with OUR money!
This is another reason to sell & get the hell out of Oneida County. Enough is enough.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 21:05:48 GMT -5
But costs go way up to run the water/sewer district services. I see people buying large supplies of water everyday at Walmart. They must not mind the increase since they are paying for both bottled and ground water. Silly I think.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 16, 2019 22:36:58 GMT -5
We have a water bill, but we have a septic system rather than sewer service. We pay an average of about $40 a month in winter and maybe $50 in summer when I am watering the veggie and flower gardens and washing the truck and trailer. $197 every three months is a big increase from what we paid before we left N Utica. The bills were only about $30-$35 a month. When we first moved here in 2002 the water bill was only about 18 or 20 bucks a month. Mom and dad paid about 10 bucks more with sewer service in the city of Bristol. Everything goes up over time, but that increase in your sewer rates seems a bit avaricious.
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Post by BHU on Feb 17, 2019 9:43:49 GMT -5
I realize costs go up but this is ridiculous. Personally, I believe these rate increases are partly due to the population drop & they need to make up revenue. Plus, users are cutting back on consumption to try & save on their bills because of these never ending rate hikes. We tried to cut back on our consumption & we paid more. They have us by the short hairs & they know it.
When the MVWA was formed back in the 90's we were promised lower rates by local officials who rammed the takeover of Uticas system thru. It was a scam. And the water quality is no better.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 17, 2019 11:27:15 GMT -5
Yep, and they also made the mistake of tearing out the dam and emptying the Gray reservoir. Now when it is a dry summer, they battle with the Thruway Authority over water. There is an ongoing dispute as to who needs the water more, the canal or those that need the water to drink and bathe. When I was a teen, we used to sneak into the gray reservoir to fish. Due to the fact that it was posted and closed to fishing there were fish in there that would make your jaw drop. When we got caught they would run us out, but they never took any other action against us. We were always careful not to leave and litter or impact the environment around the reservoir.
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Post by BHU on Feb 17, 2019 12:11:47 GMT -5
Yep I remember when they tore that dam out. It was in need of repair & rather then do the repairs they grenaded it. Bad move. It was there for a reason.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2019 12:26:58 GMT -5
Same thing with National Grid. Use less they charge more. Go figure!
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Post by clarencebunsen on Feb 17, 2019 13:38:49 GMT -5
I don't think the Water Authority did a great job of communicating the need for funding. From what I found on-line it is supposed to be used for upgrades and repairs to the treatment plant and pumping station to reduce the amount of raw sewage dumped into the river during times of high water flow. I know both NH and Whitestown have had projects to reduce leaks into their sewer lines. Utica needs repairs as well but I don't know how that can be funded.
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Post by Ralph on Feb 25, 2019 13:29:49 GMT -5
Last water bill we had was $135.00. We have water savers on every single faucet and the shower, wash on average 3 or loads of wash a week and run the dishwasher once a day. Biggest use of water after that is probably a 2 or 3 gallons a day for the birds water. I just keeps creeping up. We barely use it in the summer for watering anything and I wash the truck at at car wash.
It's just plain crazy.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2019 16:07:48 GMT -5
Your birds drink 2 to 3 gallon of water a day! Wow. Thirsty critters.
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Post by Ralph on Feb 26, 2019 13:34:13 GMT -5
It's not just what they drink, (they don't drink that much!) but what is used to wash their bowls twice a day, which probably is way more than they get in their bowls, which of course gets tossed twice a day.
I figure we all use more water washing things than any of us do drinking anything. The most irksome thing is that they calculate our County Sewer tax based on what we use. We are charged more for that then the total cost of the water.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Feb 26, 2019 15:14:54 GMT -5
I think most places calculate sewer fees based on water usage on the theory that most of the water entering a house ends up in the sewer. The amount of water we consume in our household (either straight or made into coffee or tea) is trivial compared to cleaning our laundry or dishes.
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Post by BHU on Feb 26, 2019 18:11:35 GMT -5
Agree on the sewer fees. And Utica residents get hit twice with county AND Utica sewer charges which Palmeiri raised last year.
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