The Village Board shall have the authority to establish and collect
a sewer service charge for the use of the Village sewer system and for the
wastewater treatment plant owned and operated by the Sauk Prairie Sewerage
Commission. The Sauk Prairie Sewerage Commission shall have the authority
to review the sewer service charges established by the Village prior to their
enactment.
The following user classes are established: metered residential, metered
commercial, specified industrial, and metered public. All metered residential,
public and commercial users shall pay at the residential rate plus the appropriate
surcharges for their user class. The specified industrial users shall pay
rates as determined by the Sauk Prairie Sewerage Commission and the Village
on the basis of their actual waste load contributions, as well as on their
agreed-upon debt service charge should it be applicable.
The Sauk Prairie Sewerage Commission shall determine the yearly cost
of operation and maintenance of the treatment facility and, by taking the
total flow-BOD-suspended solids load treated by the facility, determine the
resulting flow, BOD and suspended solids unit rates. Quarterly, the Commission
shall bill the Villages of Sauk City and Prairie du Sac on actual usage and
waste strength. In addition, the Commission shall bill any specified industrial
user on actual usage and waste strength at the same unit rates as determined
above, in accordance with any special agreements between the Commission and
that specified industrial user. The service charge shall be based on water
or wastewater meter readings. If service is to be interrupted for any full
quarter, the charge is to be based on the actual use for the period of service.
All charges for debts incurred by the Village for construction of the
wastewater treatment works shall be paid for by a debt service charge which
is part of the total sewer service charge. The amount of this charge will
be reviewed annually and adopted by ordinance.
The collection system charge shall be the charge to cover billing and
collecting of accounts and the operation, maintenance and replacement cost
of the sewage collection system and shall be paid for each connection for
the availability of the service.
The usage charge shall be based on the volume used by each user of the
wastewater treatment plant and shall adequately provide for proportionate
recovery of operation, maintenance, replacement, administrative and billing
costs associated with the activities of the Sauk Prairie Sewerage Commission.
This charge shall be reviewed annually and adopted by ordinance and shall
be sufficient to generate enough revenue to pay all such charges associated
with the activities of the Sauk Prairie Sewerage Commission. The Village will
maintain a proportionate distribution of operation, maintenance, replacement,
administrative and billing costs among user classes and will apply any excess
revenues collected from a user class to operation, maintenance and replacement
costs attributable to that class for the next year. The Village will annually
notify users of the portion of their bill attributable to wastewater treatment
services.
A.
The metered commercial class of users shall be charged
at the residential user rate and such additional surcharges as may be found
equitable by the approving authority.
B.
The specified industrial class of users shall be charged
at the user rates established by the Commission on the basis of actual production
of flow, BOD, and suspended solids, at such time as the industrial user applies
to discharge to the sewerage system.
[Added 1-31-2006 by Ord. No. 2006-1]
A.
Background.
(1)
The Village of Sauk City is growing rapidly, and the upgrade
of US Highway 12 to a four-lane highway is expected to produce additional
development pressure on the Village and the surrounding area. Existing development
in the Village is served by a gravity sanitary sewage collection system. Lands
lying generally to the west of Leuders Road in the Village of Sauk City previously
had limited gravity sewer service available to them based on the topography
of the land and the depth of existing sanitary sewers along Leuders Road.
To provide sanitary sewer service to these lands, the Village entered into
an agreement whereby the Sauk Prairie Sewage Commission (SPSC) would cause
the west side interceptor sewer (WSI) to be installed and the Village, along
with the Village of Prairie du Sac, would split the cost of the installation
based on a flow split methodology.
(2)
The SPSC contracted with the engineering firm of Mead and Hunt
in 2002 to prepare the engineering plans and reports necessary to construct
the WSI. Mead and Hunt prepared a facility plan for the WSI in May of 2003.
The Village Engineer, MSA Professional Services, Inc., also prepared an engineering
report and public needs assessment for the west side interceptor sewer dated
October 2005 ("needs assessment") which reviewed the WSI facilities plan and
which demonstrated that the WSI was necessary for continued development in
a westerly direction for the Village. The needs assessment showed that the
Village lands served by the WSI are the only properties in the Village benefited
by the sewer installation, and therefore these benefiting property owners
should bear the cost of the installation as these lands are developed and
a connection is made to the interceptor sewer. The needs assessment also concluded
that the total cost of the WSI sewer installation and the benefit to the benefiting
property owners is $574,920.33.
B.
Purpose. The purpose of this section is to set a special sewer
connection charge to recover the actual expenditures incurred by the Village
for the WSI project. In order to recover the costs advanced by the Village,
the Village hereby elects to proceed under the provisions of § 66.0821,
Wis. Stats., and to thereby establish the west side interceptor sanitary sewer
connection charge. The Village has determined that the WSI connection charge
should be paid on a per-acre basis. Portions of an acre shall be paid on a
pro rata basis.
(1)
The WSI connection charge shall be paid on a per-acre basis on
any lands located within the Village and also located within the WSI sanitary
sewer service area upon the occurrence of any of the following events, whichever
occurs first:
(2)
This WSI connection charge shall be in addition to any and all
other sewer service or connection fees imposed by other provisions of the
Village Code. The WSI connection charge imposed by this section is a sanitary
sewer rate charged by the Village and is not intended to be a charge levied
as a special assessment.
C.
WEST SIDE INTERCEPTOR SANITARY SEWER CONNECTION CHARGE (WSI CONNECTION
CHARGE)
WSI SANITARY SEWER SERVICE AREA
Definitions. Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise,
the meaning of terms used in this section of the Village Code shall be as
follows:
A special sanitary sewer rate applied by the Village to lands within the WSI sanitary sewer service area within the Village and/or lawfully annexed into the Village, which is more specifically set forth in Subsection D below. This special sanitary sewer connection charge is a sewer rate applied pursuant to the provisions of § 66.0821, Wis. Stats., and shall be in addition to all other sanitary sewer charges or connection fees imposed by other provisions of the Village Code. The per-acre connection charge is calculated as follows: $574,920.33 divided by 406.6 acres equals $1,413.97 per acre.
The WSI sanitary sewer service area generally includes lands west
of Leuders Road and certain lands south of US Highway 12 which access the
WSI via two crossing pipes under US Highway 12, all of which are more specifically
shown and described on Plate 1 attached as an appendix.[1] The total land area in the WSI sanitary sewer service area is 442 acres. Chapter 350, Land Division, of the Village Code requires a dedication of 8% of land area in a proposed development for parks. Because park areas will not be charged for the WSI connection charge, the service area for purposes of calculating the WSI connection charge has been reduced by 8% and is 406.06 acres.
[1]
Editor's Note: Plate 1 is on file at the office of the Village Administrator.
D.
WSI sanitary sewer connection charge.
(1)
A WSI connection charge of $1,413.97 per acre, on a pro rata
basis, shall be paid to the Village by the property owner of any lands within
the Village and within the WSI sanitary sewer service area upon the occurrence
of any one of the following events, whichever occurs first:
(2)
All lands included within a subdivision plat, certified survey
map, conditional use permit, special zoning exception, or building permit
application shall be subject to the charge. The basis for the WSI connection
charge is gross land acreage serviceable by the WSI, less park land. The charge
for any parcel of land within the WSI sanitary sewer service area is calculated
by measuring the entire area of the parcel and subtracting those lands that
are dedicated as park land.
The Village will review the wastewater contributions of its users no
less than biennially and shall align its revenue system to recover actual
costs.
The Village will include a charge for industrial cost recovery to the
Sauk Prairie Sewerage Commission for reimbursement of capital costs of construction
in accordance with any special agreements made between the Commission and
the specified industrial discharger, whereby the specified industrial user
uses Village funds for financing any such capital costs of construction. Such
special agreements shall require that capital costs to be paid by the specified
industrial user be a proration of the local capital costs for the construction,
including any associated costs, based on the design flow-BOD-suspended solids
treatment needs of the specified industrial user to those of the total system.
The total sewer service charge shall be the sum of the collection system
charge, the debt service charge, usage charge, and any applicable surcharges
and industrial cost recovery charges.
The bill will be payable in accordance with the schedule established
by the Village. These bills are normally payable in 12 monthly payments each
year.
All portions of the service charges shall be payable as described in § 265-43.
Late payment penalties will be charged as described in Article X.
In the event of failure to pay sewer charges after they become delinquent,
the Village shall have the right to remove or close sewer connections and
enter upon the property for accomplishing such purposes. The expense of such
removal or closing, as well as the expense of restoring service,
shall likewise be a debt to the Village and a lien upon the property and may
be recovered by civil action in the name of the Village against the property
owner, the person, or both. Sewer service shall not be restored until all
charges, including the expense of removal, closing and restoration, shall
have been paid. Change of ownership or occupancy of premises found delinquent
shall not be cause for reducing or eliminating these penalties.
The Village shall conduct an annual audit, the purpose of which shall
be to maintain the proportionality and adequacy of the sewer service charge
relative to changing system operation, maintenance and debt service costs.
