Seniors and small businesses tell council new sewer fee hit low‑usage households hardest

During a 30‑minute public‑comment period, residents described how the new minimum sewer fee had produced steep, sometimes catastrophic, increases for low‑consumption households and small businesses. Karen Nash, an 81‑year‑old resident, asked to see the underlying data and suggested the city consider a bond campaign rather than extracting funds from residents. "If you simply cannot apply a flat rate in a town like this," Nash told the council.

Other commenters said their bills rose 30–800% depending on account type. Peggy Mulholland, who said her household uses under 1,000 gallons monthly, urged officials to "leave the residents alone" and shift the burden to tourists and high‑flow commercial users. Small‑business owner Chris Scott said three small units together used roughly 2,500 gallons but was charged multiple minimums and called the change unfair.

Commenters proposed several alternatives: issue a municipal bond to capture capital funds, levy small surcharges on festival tickets or hotel stays to capture tourist contributions, carve out nonresidential/seasonal customer classes, and consider bedroom‑count proxies or addressing sump-pump discharges into the collection system. Residents repeatedly asked for the data and the formulas used so they could understand and verify the results.

Councilors and staff said resident input would be folded into the consultant process and noted that some of the near‑term remedies (for example, carving out resident accounts programmatically) are limited by current billing‑software constraints until vendor issues are resolved.