Canonsburg-Houston Sewer Authority to raise tap-in fees, rates with $50 million upgrades
Canonsburg-Houston Joint Sewer Authority chairman Robert Luksis, left, and solicitor Gary Matta listen to an engineer’s report on future infrastructure upgrades.
PNC Bank director of public finance, Nicholas Falgione, presented the $50 million bond plan to be borrowed at market rates likely in December.
An overview of the sewer authority plant.
CANONSBURG – The Canonsburg-Houston Joint Sewer Authority voted Thursday to seek roughly $50 million in bonds from PNC Bank as the agency moves ahead with infrastructure upgrade plans to increase capacity from 6 million to 8.4 million gallons of daily water use.
Board members said they expect construction bids to go out in January and the project to be wrapped up within 5 years despite a lawsuit filed by Chartiers Township over an increase in tap-in fees.
The suit, filed Oct. 14, 2014, said in part the authority was breaching its 30-year contract signed in July 2008, which said any decisions on upgrades must be done “uniformly by way of rate hikes rather than tap-in fees.”
The sewer authority doubled the fees from $800 to $1,600 in September 2014, according to the suit. Yet, the current tap-in fee sits at $1,600 and the new fee is slated to be $2,100, according to authority solicitor, Gary Matta.
Water usage rates would also increase from roughly 4 cents to 6 cents per gallon, according to PNC Bank’s director of public finance, Nicholas Falgione, who is coordinating the bonds.
“Had we done this the way we proposed in two phases, there would have been little to no impact on (water usage) rates for maybe 10 years… but we are nearly 2 years behind schedule,” said sewer authority chairman, Robert Luksis.
“A stipulation in the suit was they believed we weren’t going to add capacity. We didn’t believe that, but now that it’s all one project, it clearly adds capacity… if the litigation continues, we’re going to get to the same point regardless,” Matta said.
“The majority of this project will be paid for by tap-in fees. And that’s for future development. It’s on new construction, not existing customers,” Matta said.
The contract with Chartiers Township extends to 2038. Luksis said the current plan to pay off the bonds factors in the possibility of the township backing out of the service agreement. North Strabane and Cecil townships also are served by the authority.