N. Wildwood Hikes Sewer Rates

NORTH WILDWOOD – City Council voted to raise the sewer rate during the three offseason quarters of the year by $1 per 1,000 gallons, said North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello. Third-quarter sewer rates, comprised of the high-volume months June, July and August, would not be affected.
“The current base is $4 per 1,000 gallons. It is going to $5 per 1,000 gallons. The total anticipated increase is about $240,000 which is approximately a 5% increase for the total sewer charge citywide,” Rosenello said.
The price of sewer repairs should be pushed to the sewer user, not paid equally by taxpayers, Rosenello said.
“For many years, that sewer expense was just passed along in our tax rate,” Rosenello said. “The sewer bill is a direct user fee. The more you use, the more you pay.”
Rosenello said it was unfair that a couple who uses sewer minimally would have to split the cost with a house rented to large groups all summer or on offseason weekends, where sewer usage would be higher. 
“Under the old way, those two properties were paying the same amount of money to replace that sewer,” Rosenello said. “I think this is a much more fair way of paying for our sewer infrastructure.”
Rosenello said the current sewer bill reflects the cost of sending the sewage to the county, but not for expensive repairs necessary in North Wildwood. Deciding which streets to redo has been based on the age of the sewer beneath the street, Rosenello said, adding the sewers are redone when resurfacing streets.
“The sewer portion can account to up to 50% of the cost for redoing a street,” Rosenello said. “That’s the expense we really never captured in our sewer bill.”
However, shifting the cost of infrastructure repairs to the sewer bill isn’t going to mean a tax cut, according to the mayor.
“We’re getting hammered right now,” Rosenello said, pointing to beach replenishment, seawall extension and repair, a pump station project and other projects  on the city’s books.
“The taxes are not going up as much as they would,” Rosenello said. “That’s not to say that the taxes haven’t been going up because of these huge capital projects that have been hitting us.”