[Adopted 12-13-1999 by Ord. No. 5-1999]
Willistown Township hereby accepts the continuing offer of dedication of Quaker Sewer, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation, and, thereby, Willistown Township acquires ownership of the easements more fully described in the Sanitary Sewage Cross-Easement Agreement recorded in Chester County in Deed Book 3528, Page 2258 et seq., as amended by the First Addendum recorded in Chester County in Deed Book 4181, Page 133 et seq., and legal title to the improvements, to a certain community sewage collection and disposal system more fully described in Appendix A appended hereto,[1] made a part hereof and incorporated herein by reference (the "community sewage system"); which community sewage system serves or will serve some 202 townhouse units, more or less, made a part of a certain residential land development known as Willistown Chase/Penns Preserve.
[1]
Editor's Note: Appendix A is on file in the Township offices.
From and after the effective date of this article, no septic tank or other means of sewage disposal shall be constructed on those lands now served by the community sewage system, and it shall be unlawful for any person to cause or permit the flowing, discharge or drainage of waste, sewage or other similar wastes from said lands except into the community sewage system.
From and after the effective date of this article, each owner, lessee and invitee with respect to the lands served by the community sewage system shall be subject to this article, including but not limited to the penalties and remedies contained herein, and the rules and regulations promulgated pursuant hereto.
[Amended 4-9-2007 by Ord. No. 4-2007]
The Board of Supervisors of Willistown Township shall prescribe by resolution the charge or charges to be assessed against each person or persons whose property is served by the community sewage system; which charges in the aggregate shall be fixed in an amount not less than the projected cost to the Township of operating, maintaining, repairing and, if necessary, replacing the community sewage system, including without limitation the cost of any contract for the operation, maintenance, repair and replacement, the cost of administrative services in administering and monitoring any such contract and in assessing and collecting the charges assessed against the users of the community sewage system, the cost of such consultants as are retained to provide advice and assistance in matters having to do with the community sewage system, the cost of insuring against potential liabilities and risks associated with the community sewage system, and a reasonable capital reserve for the eventual major repair and replacement of the community sewage system. Such charge or charges as may be prescribed by the annual resolution of the Board of Supervisors shall be paid to the Township Treasurer, on a quarterly basis, and the charge for each calendar quarter shall be billed and payable within 30 days of the billing date.
Once set by the Board of Supervisors and assessed against property served by the community sewage system, the charges, together with penalties, interest, costs and reasonable attorneys fees, shall constitute liens against the properties and may be collected in the same manner as other sewer charges and municipal liens.
All money received as a result of assessment of the sewer charges shall be maintained as a special reserve fund and shall be used only for the payment of the costs of administering, operating, maintaining, repairing, replacement and, if necessary, enlarging the community sewage system and for a reasonable capital reserve in connection therewith.
[Amended 4-13-2009 by Ord. No. 3-2009]
A. 
The charges for sewer service shall be subject to a penalty of 5% if not paid on or before the 30th day after the billing date. If not paid within 120 days after the date of the bill, the Township shall have the right to cut off sewer service from the delinquent premises and not to restore the same until all delinquent bills against the same and the cost of cutting off and restoring service shall have been paid.
B. 
All persons connected to the sewer system must give the Township their correct addresses. Failure to receive bills will not be considered an excuse for nonpayment nor permit an extension of the period during which bills are payable at face.
C. 
Payment made, as evidenced by the United States Post Office mark, on or previous to the end of the period during which the bills are payable at face, will be deemed to be a payment within such period.
D. 
All sewer charges, together with all penalties and fees thereon, not paid on or before the 30th day after the billing date shall be deemed to be delinquent. It shall be the duty of the Township to proceed to collect such delinquent charges, together with penalties, fees and costs accrued thereon, including attorneys' fees, either by action at law or by filing a lien or liens for the same in the office of the Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County, Pennsylvania, and such liens, together with penalty, costs, and interest accrued thereon, including attorneys' fees, shall be filed and collected in accordance with the law. Interest in the amount of 10% per annum shall begin to accrue on the date of the filing of a lien.
The Township reserves the right to, and may from time to time, adopt, revise, amend and readopt such rules and regulations as it deems necessary and proper for the use and operation of the Community Sewage System, and all such rules and regulations shall be and become a part of this article.
Connection to the community sewage system shall be required as provided in § 105-2 of this chapter. No connection shall be made to the community sewage system except in compliance with this article as well as such rules and regulations which may, from time to time, be enacted, adopted, approved or promulgated by the Township. The Township hereby waives the payment of sewer connection fees for the 202 Willistown Chase/Penns Preserve townhouse units.
The Township and its agents and employees shall have the right of access to and may enter any building, property, lands, premises or place as may be reasonably necessary to carry out the provisions of this article and the rules and regulations promulgated hereunder. In connection with such inspection or investigation, samples may be taken of any solid, semisolid, liquid or contained gaseous material for analysis.
If at any time after the effective date of this article, an integrated municipal sewer system is made available by the Township for connection to all of the properties served by the community sewage system, the owners of said properties shall be subject to all rules and regulations governing connection to and use of said sewer system, and all money maintained in connection with the community sewage system on the date of connection of the last of said properties to the municipal sewage system, less the cost of discontinuance thereof and disconnection therefrom, shall constitute a credit benefiting said properties and against the payment of any sewer connection or tapping fees charged in connection therewith.
The provisions of this article are declared to be for the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the Township, and persons violating any provisions of this article, upon conviction before any District Justice, shall be fined not more than $1,000 and cost of prosecution and collection activities or by imprisonment in the county jail for a term not to exceed 30 days, or both such fine and imprisonment. The continuation of such violation for each successive day shall constitute a separate offense, and the person or persons allowing or permitting the continuation of the violation may be punished as provided above for each separate offense.
In addition to the penalties provided in § 105-102, the Township is authorized to file appropriate actions at law or in equity in the Court of Common Pleas in and for Chester County or before any other body having jurisdiction over the persons and activities herein regulated to abate any violations of the provisions of this article. Violations of this article are declared to be public nuisances, abatable as such.
Without limiting the foregoing, it is the intent and purpose of the Board of Supervisors of Willistown Township to declare and create a separate sanitary sewer district consisting of the lands served by the community sewage system to be known as the "Penns Preserve Sewer District."
This article and any rules and regulations hereunder shall become effective immediately and shall be applicable to all properties within the Penns Preserve Sewer District. The Township reserves the right to make such changes from time to time as in its opinion may be desirable or beneficial and to amend this article or to change the fees in such manner and at such times as, in its opinion, may be advisable.
If any sentence, clause, section or part of this article is for any reason found to be unconstitutional, illegal or invalid, such unconstitutionality, invalidity or illegality shall not affect or impair any of the remaining provisions, sentences, clauses, sections or parts of this article. It is hereby declared that it is the intent of the Board of Supervisors of Willistown Township that this article would have been adopted had such unconstitutional, illegal or invalid sentence, clause, section or part thereof not been included therein.
Nothing herein shall be construed to relieve any party from paying any fees, costs, charges or reimbursements required pursuant to the Sanitary Sewage Cross-Easement recorded in Chester County in Deed Book 3528, Page 2258 et seq., as amended by the First Addendum recorded in Chester County in Deed Book 4181, Page 133 et seq., and/or the Sewer Services Agreement recorded in Chester County in Deed Book 4181, Page 168 et seq.