After weeks of deliberation, the Galion City Council voted on June 11 to increase sewer rates in Galion by around 20%.
Ordinance 2024-33 entered into the third and final reading at the meeting, requiring a vote by council. Council member Brian Palmer was absent from the meeting.
Before council made its final decision on the ordinance, several citizens addressed council, including Treasurer Roberta Wade. Wade once again brought up her concerns about unbilled treated water in Galion, suggesting that billing this water could take the place of a sewer rate increase.
“You’re passing all this government mismanagement and waste to the poorest of the poorest in this town and it needs to stop,” Wade said. She brought up a 2014 report which showed more than 40% of the city’s treated water was unbilled. Wade told the council that this represented millions of dollars in revenue.
During council discussions, council member Mike Richart stated that Wade was misunderstanding the full picture, since she was not accounting for the cost of installing and maintaining the new water meters her plan required. Richart added that “by state law, we (the council) have no control over the water.”
Richart said that Wade’s suggestion that the city could recoup millions of dollars in revenue by replacing water meters was “a fantasy.”
Council member Carrie Zeger added that she had spoken to officials at the water treatment plant who told her that some communities were able to make back the amount they invested on new meters within 10 years. However, the downside of these new digital meters, she said, is that they would need to be replaced again in about 10 years.
As he emphasized in previous meetings, Richart pointed out that the sewer rates have not been increased in several years. He added that the decision to raise prices has not been made “willy-nilly” and that the rising costs of materials for the plant, along with needed repairs, makes the rate hike necessary.
“One of the reasons we have some of the problems that we do now is because we have been very frugal,” he said.
Mayor Tom O’Leary said the council recently passed an ordinance approving a plant analysis, which will provide details on the needed plant repairs. He agreed with Richart that the rates have been kept too low for too long.
“Voting against it will put the ball in the court of the no voters to come up with a different solution or a better solution,” O’Leary said.
Council member Cathy George suggested the meters once again, pointing out that new meters would provide more accurate readings and could bring in more funds to the city. Council member Kara Ault argued that meters would take time to install and would not provide an immediate monetary solution.
“We need to make sure we’re not bleeding out our general fund,” Ault said. “We haven’t raised it since 2022, and I can’t think of any other bill that I have that hasn’t been raised since 2022.”
The council passed ordinance 2024-33 to raise sewer rates unanimously.
Hannah Bryan is a correspondent for the Galion Inquirer. She can be reached at [email protected].
