(A) Necessity for sewer service. The Village Council has previously found and currently reaffirms that the use of septic tanks, privies, privy vaults, cesspools or similar private sewage disposal facilities is deleterious to the health, safety and welfare of the residents, businesses, industries and governmental and charitable agencies of the village and that the health, safety and welfare of the residents, businesses, industries and governmental and charitable agencies is enhanced by the creation of a public Sewage Disposal System, with regulation by the village of pollutants and other harmful materials, according to state and federal standards.
(B) Method of measuring use of Sewage Disposal System. The Village Council finds that the most practical, cost-effective and accurate method, given available technology, of measuring the use of the Sewage Disposal System by all nonresidential users and by all residential users that receive water service from the Village's Water Supply System is by a meter or meters installed to measure water usage by the user. The Village Council further finds that, with respect to residential users not served by the village's Water Supply System, it would be impractical and cost-prohibitive to require the users to install a meter to measure water use from a well or other private water source. Therefore, in the case of residential users that do not receive water service from the Village's Water Supply System, the Village Council determines that use of the Sewage Disposal System shall be estimated based on the number of bedrooms in the dwelling or residence, which the Village Council finds to be a fair and reasonable estimate of the variable costs of the sewer and wastewater treatment services provided by the Sewage Disposal System to the users.
(C) Continuation of Sewage Disposal Service. The Village Council has previously found and further currently reaffirms that in order to provide and continue to provide for the safe and uninterrupted removal and treatment of sewage, pollutants and other harmful materials, it is necessary from time to time to install improvements, enlargements, extensions and repairs to the Sewage Disposal System.
(D) Purpose of fees. The fees for the use of and connection to the Sewage Disposal Supply System are hereby established for the purpose of recovering the cost of operation, maintenance, repair, replacement and improvement of the Sewage Disposal System and to comply with federal and state laws and regulations, to provide for the payment of principal of and interest on any bonds authorized to be issued as and when the same become due and payable and to provide an account for reasonable and necessary improvements to the Sewage Disposal System. The fees shall be made against all users of the Sewage Disposal System in a fair and equitable manner and based on the level of service provided, in accordance with the purposes herein described, as well as the following:
(1) All premises connected to the Sewage Disposal System shall be charged and shall make payments to the village in amounts computed on the basis of this subchapter;
(2) The rates and fees for sewage disposal service provided by the Sewage Disposal System are established herein to adequately provide for bond requirements and to ensure that the Sewage Disposal System does not operate at a deficit. The rates and fees shall be established by resolution of the Village Council based upon advice of the village's engineers and administrative staff; and
(3) The charges, rates and fees shall be set so as to recover costs from users in reasonable proportion to the cost of serving those users.
(E) Proportionality, fairness and benefits of rates and fees. The Village Council has previously found and further currently reaffirms, that the most fair and reasonable method of providing for the operation, maintenance, repair, replacement and improvement of the Sewage Disposal System is to charge each user a proportionate share of the cost of:
(1) Retiring debt secured by the net revenues of the Sewage Disposal System issued to pay for improvements and replacements to the Sewage Disposal System;
(2) Ongoing repair, replacement and improvement and budgeted as part of the annual costs of the Sewage Disposal System; and
(3) Operation, administration and maintenance costs of the Sewage Disposal System.
(F) Sewer service charges. The village has investigated several methods of apportioning the costs of the sewer service provided by the Sewage Disposal System. Based on its investigation and the recommendations of Ayres, Lewis, Norris & May, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan, independent advisors to the village, the Village Council has previously found and currently reaffirms that to ensure the stability and viability of the Sewage Disposal System for the benefit of its users, the most fair and accurate way to apportion the costs of operation, maintenance, replacement and improvement of the Sewage Disposal System is to charge each user:
(1) A commodity charge for sewer usage which is based on the user's actual metered use of water supplied by the Village's Water Supply System (or, in the case of residential users, not served by the Village's Water Supply System based on actual metered water use from a private water supply or the number of bedrooms in the premises served);
(2) A readiness-to-serve charge for sewer usage based on meter size, which fee reflects each user's proportionate share of the fixed costs of operating and maintaining the Sewage Disposal System;
(3) A capital connection fee to be paid by persons connecting to the Sewage Disposal System or changing their user classification in order to defray certain capital costs incurred to provide sufficient capacity to all users; and
(4) The other fees and costs for services as authorized by this subchapter.
(G) Benefits of charges. The Village Council further has previously found and currently reaffirms that the charges, rates and fees set forth herein and by resolution fairly and accurately apportion the fixed and variable costs of providing sewer service among the users of the Sewage Disposal System and that the commodity charge and readiness-to-serve charges provide actual benefits to the users in the form of ready access to sewer service that would be unavailable if the charges were not imposed.
(H) Fair charges. In addition to the findings set forth above, the Village Council has previously found and currently reaffirms that the capital connection fee is a fair and proportionate charge for new users of the Sewage Disposal System and that the opportunity to connect to the Sewage Disposal System provides actual benefits to each new user equal to or greater than the amount of the charge.
(Ord. 68, passed 10-24-2005)
