Dec 13, 2017 2 min read

WAYNESBURG – Waynesburg Borough Council adopted the borough’s 2018 budget Monday, a $1.6 million spending plan that will not require an increase in property taxes.

However, residents will see an increase in their monthly sewage bills, after the council voted to increase the sewage rate, which is based on water usage, from 110 percent to 132 percent of a resident’s water bill.

The increase in the sewage rate, which council has maintained is needed to help fund improvements to the borough sewer system mandated by the state, is expected to raise the monthly bill from $35, the average customer’s payment, to $42.

The 2018 budget, which was adopted unanimously, is about $64,000 less than the current year spending plan.

“I think we’ve been doing a better job of maintaining expenditures, because revenue, obviously, is not increasing,” borough manager Mike Simms said. “We’re doing more with less.”.

With little new development in the borough, property taxes each year brings in about the same amount of revenue, he explained.

Expenditures in the new budget remained fairly level though the borough did see “normal” increases in costs for materials and services as well as for wages and benefits, he said.

The budget lists revenue and expenditures at $1,606,800. Major general fund categories include $576,000 for miscellaneous expenses, which includes hospitalization, retirement and insurance costs; $568,700 for the police department; $192,600 for public works; and $182,000 for general government.

On the revenue side, property taxes are budgeted at $589,900; Act 511 taxes, including earned income taxes, $520,200; police department revenue, $103,800; Act 13 revenue, $100,000; and miscellaneous revenue, $172,700.

The borough last raised sewage rates 18 years ago, in 1999, when it increased the rate from 105 percent to 110 percent of a resident’s water bill.

The borough is required by the state Department of Environmental Protection to reduce sewage overflows at its plant that occur during heavy rain and result partly from having a combined sanitary and stormwater collection system.

Council voted last month to move forward with a plan to rehabilitate the borough’s sewage treatment plant, selecting the least costly of the three alternatives that were studied.

That plan was estimated at $15.4 million.

Council plans to seek grant and loan funding for the project from state and federal funding sources. Work on the project is not expected begin until 2020.