Board Votes Fee Increase District Wide
Inflation Causes Operating Increase for Pinewood Sanitary District Monthly Maintenance Fees
The Pinewood Sanitary District Board voted unanimously during the March meeting to increase the monthly “Operation and Maintenance” fee 8.5% from $50.57 per household to $54.90. The increase is due to soaring operational costs spearheaded by energy costs that have mushroomed over the last two years. The Pinewood Sanitary District also assessed increases to the applicable businesses utilizing the private sewer district for sanitary relief. All increases become effective July 1, 2023, with the new fiscal budget.
“Nobody likes to see prices go up,” said Bill Spain, District Chairman, “yet we have to be able to fill the trucks with gas and diesel fuel, pay the electric bill and maintain operations and with the inflation incurred over the last eighteen plus months, something has to give. We have looked at every possible avenue to reduce overhead before we made the decision to raise the rates,” added Spain. “We are in the process of revising our monthly mailings to minimize expense, cutting our payroll system fees, copy and cloud storage costs and reducing employee expenses where we can but the pace of the inflationary trend requires we increase our fees at this point,” he added.
In combination with the increase in expenses, the District has seen a huge spike in the volume of processing the plant has had to absorb. The extreme weather events that have been plaguing the plant during the last several months are making it difficult for plant personnel to operate the plant efficiently. The increase in usage by AirBNB’s and VRBO’s are a big problem on weekends and holidays, especially in the summer months.
“The diapers and wipes in the system are a real problem for our plant operation,” stated Lee Krosnicki, Sanitary District Manager. “The equipment can’t handle the influx of these “flushed” commodities. This behavior is causing breakdowns at the plant, replacement of pumps, filters and additional manpower hours to deal with the clogs and equipment breakdowns. It has to stop,” exclaimed Krosnicki.
“This is a call to all those in our community to help us keep the plant working by being critical of anything you put into the sewer system.” said Spain, “We all need to help our aging plant work efficiently by being considerate of each other and ensuring we do not pollute the system by flushing any kind of wipes, diapers or toweling into the sewer. It is another reason for the increase in costs,” stated Spain.