Community Corner

Update: Cranberry Faces Rate Hike with Wastewater Plant Expansion

The average homeowner will see an $8 monthly increase.

Cranberry residents will see a spike in their water bills by next month.

Cranberry voted 4-1 at Thursday’s Board of Supervisors meeting to increase rates to finance an expansion to the Brush Creek Water Pollution Control Facility.

There also will be an increase from $1,784 to $2,184 (an uptick of $400) for new construction to tap into the sewer system. The increase would generate an additional $480,000 annually. 

Find out what's happening in Cranberrywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The construction costs to expand the facility are estimated at a minimum of $18 to $20 million.

Starting Aug. 23, the rate for residents will increase from $5.67 to $7.16 per 1,000 gallons—an increase of $1.49. Officials said the move would bring in an additional $930,000 to the township per year. 

Find out what's happening in Cranberrywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Most homeowners will see an increase of about $8 per month. On average, water bills currently are about $35 per month.

In addition to  new environmental regulations imposed by the Department of Environmental Protection, officials said the expansion is necessary to accommodate Cranberry’s projected rate of growth by 2017.

The Timing

Supervisor Dave Root was the lone vote against the measure. While he agreed the increase is necessary, Root took issue with how residents were notified of the potential hike.

He noted Cranberry did not post an announcement about the increase on the township’s website until after the last Board of Supervisors meeting on July 25. 

He proposed delaying a decision on the rate increase for 30 days.

“Quite frankly, we know we are going to have to do it anyway,” he said. “I agree we are going to have to raise this, but if you wait 30 days, you let people look at this and see if there are any other options we haven’t thought of.”

Resident David Weber also spoke out a Tuesday’s meeting and asked officials to table a decision on the increase until a future date.

“My feeling is the public needs more time to review if anyone is interested—I certainly am interested—in details of how you came up with that particular rate for the rate increase,” he said. 

Supervisor Chairman Bruce Mazzoni said the township has been analyzing the costs associated with expanding the plant for some time, including at prior budget meetings.

“This is something that we have to do,” he said. “It’s dollar and cents. We’ve been doing a very methodical, logical and, I feel, very transparent approach to moving forward on this.”

Township manager Jerry Andree added the township would lose about $116,000, plus an additional $4,000 to $40,000 in potential developer contributions for new construction, by waiting a month to make a decision.

“We might miss a major development,” he said.

Andree added it was impossible to finance the $20 million project without some adjustments to the rate.

At last week’s meeting, he said the township previously applied for assistance from the state to finance the project, but was rejected because Cranberry’s rates were too low.

“The state says our rate should between 1 and 2 percent of our average household income,” he said. “With the formula, it says we should be between $70 and $140 dollars (per month).”

"Obviously, we're well below that," he said. 

The DEP Factor

The plant expansion will be subject to any new DEP conditions, which could have a “significant” impact on the final cost for the project. Officials are still waiting for the agency to determine the requirements, Andree said. 

In the meantime, he is certain the requirements will lead to increased costs for the expansion.

“I’ll say it now, $20 million is the absolute floor,” he said.

The permitting and design phases for the project will take place this year through 2014. Construction on the facility could start in 2015 and be complete by early 2016.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here