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Show fiewly Imposed Sewer, Water Fees Explained By flayor, City Council At a recent meeting of the Roosevelt City Council it was decided that some clarification of City Ordinance No. 444, re- garding the sewer maintenance fee, needed to be made for the benefit of Roosevelt citizens. The sewer maintenance fee became necessary due to the fact that the sewer has begun to cost the city considerable money to keep in proper working work-ing order: For instance, during 1952 and thus far in 1953, approximately ap-proximately $4,000 has been expended ex-pended in the Mud Flat district because the sewer has sunk in several places necessitating repairs. re-pairs. No fund has ever been provided in the city budget for such repairs until the passing of the ordinance, which became effective January 1. Originally it was . intended that sewer connection fees would be used to extend the sewers into new sections and additions. However, with rising labor and materials costs, it now develops that actual connections use up all of the connection fee, leaving no' balance for maintenance mainten-ance or extension of the sewer system, and the money spent on maintaining the sewer has had to come out of other funds. The sewer maintenance fee of 50 cents per month has been placed as a charge against each sewer connection, as provided by ordinance 444, and shows for the first time, for a 3-month period, on water bills mailed last week. By law this sewer ; maintenance fee has been made a part of the water collection schedule and provision has been made by law that the water can be turned off from a house or f usiness establishment for failure fail-ure to pay the sewer maintenance mainten-ance fee. It is hoped by the City Council Coun-cil that people .will understand the necessity for this maintenance mainten-ance charge and realize that the sewer has been in a great many years in some sections of the city and is becoming old; in other oth-er sections, land structure is such that portions of the sewer are sinking; and in some sec-J tions roots from trees are growing grow-ing into the sewer lines, clogging clog-ging them and causing a lot of grief. The sewer maintenance fee will be used to correct such troubles. Water bills are due between now and February 1, at the same time the sewer maintenance mainten-ance fees are due. In the past ; a lot of time, effort and money has been expended trying to collect delinquent water accounts. ac-counts. The ordinance drawn up in connection with the new water wa-ter system requires that the watermaster be bonded and responsible re-sponsible for water rental fees. ;It does not require that he go back to houses time . and time again in order to collect, the City Council points out. The law does provide, however, how-ever, that if any water user becomes be-comes delinquent in the payment pay-ment of his water account, the watermaster, under bond, is required re-quired to turn the water off. The law also provides for a $3.00 turn-on charge for all water connections con-nections turned off due to nonpayment. non-payment. The City Council believes that considerable of the tax payers' money has been wasted in the past making repeated trips to collect delinquent . water bills and feels that it will be for the benefit of all concerned if water bills are taken care of by the due date. |