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Canfield officials notify residents of county sewer-meter billing change and forthcoming rate ordinance
Summary
Finance officials told the Canfield City Council that the county will begin metering sanitary-sewer flow and billing the city on measured flow; staff said this will require a sewer-rate ordinance and likely lead to higher bills, with city staff preparing an ordinance for the first May meeting.
The Canfield City Council heard from Finance Director Missus Clayton that the county has installed a meter to measure sanitary-sewer flow and will shift billing from an allocation based on customer water consumption to actual flow-based billing. "It goes out to the county, and they're going to start billing us based on flow through that meter," Clayton said, noting the change could capture additional inflow-and-infiltration and raise the city's charge from the county.
Clayton told the council she will prepare an ordinance to increase sanitary-sewer rates for consideration at the first May meeting and that the finance department is preparing capital asset spreadsheets for the 2025 GAAP report. A resident, Joel LaCicero, asked when higher charges would appear on customer bills; staff replied they expect changes to show up in late spring or early summer and that the meter changeover is intended to enable a shift from quarterly to monthly billing. "That's the ultimate goal," a staff member said when asked about monthly billing.
Council members asked for clear public communication about timing and the magnitude of increases. The session included an advisory that the county's new per-thousand-gallon rate was reported in the meeting as $7.53 per 1,000 gallons (as presented at the meeting); staff cautioned that the county's billing methodology change, and not just the rate, may meaningfully increase the city's expense and therefore residents' bills.
