St. Marys may raise electric service charge

ST. MARYS - For the first time in more than two decades, city officials want to increase the service charge on electric service to help pay for infrastructure and personnel costs.

Director of public service and safety Gregory Foxhoven and utility office supervisor Carol Lengerich at Monday night's electric committee meeting proposed raising the monthly residential service charge from $3.50 to $10.

"If we don't do this customer service charge, the customer is simply paying for the electric that they use. They're not paying for the infrastructure. They're not paying for the meter readers. They're not paying for the vehicle to go read the meter. They're not paying for Carol's time and her staff's time and the materials used," Foxhoven said.

The service charge helps cover the costs of reading the meters, mailing bills, posting payments, making deposits and opening and closing accounts, Lengerich said.

The increase in service charge could generate $306,000 revenue yearly for the electric fund. The monthly residential service charge has been set at $3.50 for more than 25 years, Lengerich said.

Foxhoven and Lengerich suggested the electric committee could have one increase to $10 or to phase the increase in over a few years.

Committee member John Bubp suggested splitting the increase between this year and next at $3.25 per month each year.

Foxhoven also proposed increasing commercial and industrial service charges from $6 to $10 per year.

City officials also talked about replacing water and electric meters in town.

New meters would increase accuracy and reliability, enhance revenue, improve customer service and outage management, Foxhoven said.

Electric system superintendent Dale Good spoke about installing new electric meters for the nearly 4,500 city customers.

The new meters would cost about $900,000 and would be installed by Utility Metering Solutions. The project would be funded from the city's water fund and has been budgeted for this year, Foxhoven said.

The new devices would cut the time to read meters from three weeks per month to just one week.

"The electric can be done in one year. They're easier to do because they're on the outside of people's homes," Foxhoven said.

Superintendent of water and sewer departments Jeff Thompson talked to council about installing new water meters for city customers.

About 4,445 water meters are to be replaced and more could be found during inspections, he said. Some current water meters date back to the 1960s, he said.

The new water meters would cost about $2.1 million to be paid from water and sewer funds.

Water meter installation could take up to five years because they are more difficult to access. UMS would also install those meters.

"Water meters, because they're in pits, behind walls everywhere, those are going to take longer," Foxhoven said.

The new system will notify workers of leaks or cracks immediately so employees can shut off lines to save water and money.

Safety is a big concern for Thompson.

"We've had meter readers bitten by dogs. We've had trips, falls, icy conditions lightning storms, vehicle accidents," he said.

The new system will make it safer for readers because they can access information online.

Foxhoven proposed writing an ordinance to install new electric and water meters to be presented to city council May 26. Installation would start in July if council approves the ordinance next week, Foxhoven said.