The Harrison Township Committee has introduced a new ordinance that would increase sewer rates to improve the township’s wastewater treatment plant on Woodland Avenue.
According to Mayor Adam Wingate, the measure marks the third stage of a plan to increase sewer rates incrementally over a three-year period. Introduced three years ago, the plan was skipped in 2023.
“There’s some upgrades we need for the plant,” the mayor explained. “It’s just for a couple more guys to be added to the force over there. We’re kind of starting to get caught in some debt, we’re starting to fall behind and we’re trying to keep ourselves in the black over there.
“It’s not a long-term solution,” Wingate added. “We’re still working on a long-term solution for the plant. But we’ll work diligently to get that done.”
Township Administrator Dennis Chambers went deeper into the details of the plant’s funding.
“The plant’s budget is a utility fund,” he noted. “So, it has to be self-liquidating. We are on a very razor-thin margin for that to be happening. When we met with our auditors three years ago, four years ago, we were on, at that point in time, a three-year-plan to increase rents and revenues to 30% to 35%. It had been a long time since they’d been adjusted, from 2012 to maybe 2022, when we essentially had no increase.”
According to Chambers, the need for more funding was the result of price increases that followed COVID in 2020. The Woodland Avenue plant needs to be upgraded in order to stay in permit, meaning the township will have to bond money in order to pay for the debt.
“It will generate roughly around $300,000 a year, so that will give us quite a bit of cushion,” Wingate pointed out. “As with anything, we shouldn’t continue to go on a plan of not raising rates ever. We are pretty low as it goes, as compared to other towns. I believe they have their own plants or have their own utilities or MUAs and their own set of rates.
“But this will put us on pace to be able to change that and then figure out what our long-term solution and decisions are.”
A resident later raised concerns about a potential hike in sewer bills if the ordinance is approved, but it was clarified that the increase would not directly affect residents.
A public hearing for the ordinance will take place at a committee meeting on Monday at 7 p.m. Members will vote on the measure following that session.
