Lorain council approves sewer rate increase

Following weeks of discussion and debate, Lorain City Council approved legislation to raise the sanitary sewer rental charge for city residents — a move that city officials said would address a budget deficit in the water pollution control fund. During Monday night's regular meeting, Lorain Council voted 7-4 to approve the sanitary sewer rental charge. Council suspended the rule requiring three readings, but the ordinance will not go into immediate effect because it did not get at least eight votes. Instead, the legislation will take effect in 30 days, on Oct. 21, with the sewer rate rising from a standard rate of $9 to $15. Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley said residents can expect to see the change on their bills starting in November. City officials said the rate had been lowered over the previous years and was at a time higher than $15. During a previous meeting, city officials clarified that the current budget gap is the result, in part, because of a change that Council made in 2020. At that meeting, Mayor Jack Bradley said that prior to Council adjusting the rate to $20 in 2020, it was previously $9. "I would expect that the rate increase is going to be less than people were paying in 2020," Bradley said at the time. The four dissenting votes were cast by Council members Andy Drwal, D-Ward 1, Victoria Kempton, D-Ward 2, Mary Springowski, D-at Large and Mitchell Fallis, D-at Large. Prior to the vote, Lorain Auditor Anita Harper indicated that the change will allow the city to address its deficit. "Not entirely, but it will go a long way to getting us there," Harper said when answering a question of if the deficit would be resolved by the end of the year with the new legislation. Multiple Council members who voted against the legislation Monday indicated their concerns of city residents footing the bill to address the city's budget struggles. "I refuse to support any more increases in rates or anything that we're going to be putting on the back of our residents," Springowski said. "They are not getting increases to their pay, especially when you look at how many of our residents are on pensions or on a fixed income or on assistance. What are we doing to help them?" During Monday night's meeting, Lorain Council also approved legislation that is intended to provide discounts to water and sewer rates to eligible residents, which would provide an additional 33 percent discount on the sewer EPA compliance charge. Contact Garrett Looker at glooker@chroniclet.com.