Coudersport Area Municipal Authority Increases Sewage Rates

The Endeavor News

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Higher sewer bills are coming for customers of the Coudersport Area Municipal Authority. They’ll see about a five-percent increase.

Members last month approved a $4.00 per EDU increase for their roughly 700 customers. It was the first increase since bills nearly doubled at the end of a major expansion almost a decade ago.

Residential rates are rising from $432 per year to $456.

The issue was discussed during Wednesday night’s meeting of Coudersport Borough Council, the group responsible for appointing the authority members that reside in the borough. Coudersport Area Municipal Authority serves Coudersport Borough and portions of Eulalia and Sweden townships.

Coudersport resident Brian Wilson asked council members if they were aware of the “back door increase” and suggested that they dissolve the authority and run it themselves “so (they) know what the heck’s going on.”

Wilson, who conceded that he had not attended the sewage authority meetings, said that council members were at least culpable in the matter, a suggestion to which solicitor Dan Glassmire took offense.

“Are you going to complain to us about something we’ve actually done?” Glassmire queried, noting that council has no legislative control over the municipal authority.

Wilson said the increase seems to him to be without merit because the authority has roughly $740,000 in a capital reserve fund. Additionally, it’s owed close to $40,000 in delinquent bills.

“I can’t understand how they (the authority) can in good conscience collect more from the residents who are paying when they have so many who aren’t paying,” Wilson told Endeavor News. “There wouldn’t be a rate increase if they had even half of that $40,000.”

The authority is considering hiring a collection agency.

It was not mentioned during Wednesday’s meeting, but council members do have authority in collecting the money owed to the authority. Coudersport Borough Council is responsible for invoicing customers and collecting the money.

One authority member told Endeavor News that the increase was made out of “absolute necessity.”

“Even if we collected every penny of what’s owed to us, we’d still have a financial (shortfall),” he said. “We haven’t had an increase in at least eight years and the cost (to run the facility) increases significantly every year.”

Coudersport Municipal Authority meets the second Thursday of each month at 6:30 in the sewage facility at Toles Hollow. The meetings are open to the public.