News

The Salem Utility Committee along with most of the aldermen, Mayor J.J. Tune and City Administrator Ray Walden met Thursday evening in the city hall basement to discuss the water and sewer rate study performed by the Missouri Rural Water Association. Liz Grove, the Missouri Rural Water Association Management Circuit Rider, presented her findings and made recommendations to assist the city in determining new water and sewer rates. She said the city sold over 136,490,000 gallons of water in the 2013 fiscal year to 2,017 customers with 7,233,600 gallons being purchased by Heartland Metal. The average gallons used by each customer every month are 5,340. The city currently uses a tiered system, but the billing program the city uses does not breakdown the individual tier usage so Grove had to provide an average that could be added to each tier. The estimated total revenues were $500,327 while the operating expenditures were $552,958 showing a shortfall of $52,631, but the city also has an ordinance requiring them to put 5% in reserves and that comes to another $24,464 that needs to be covered by the water rates, bringing the shortfall to $77,095. Grove calculated it would cost 56 cents per 1,000 gallons of water to cover the shortfall. For a user of 5,000 gallons of water, that would be an increase from $15.39 per month to $18.19 per month. She also presented a single tier option to the city that would create a water “volume unit charge” which is based on the number of customers and the gallons of water sold. This figure came to $4.07 per 1,000 gallons sold with a minimum of 76 cents per connection per month. Currently, the city base is $7.47 for a minimum usage charge for 2,000 gallons and under the new base, the minimum would need to be $8.90 using this figure. Thus a bill for those using 5,000 gallons a month would be $21.11. Grove warned that these calculations would only cover the shortfall the city currently has with the water billing system. The city’s sewer rates consist of a base charge and a volume rate per 1,000 gallons used on the winter averaging method which means the city uses the first three months of the year to determine the sewer volume charges. The city currently has a base rate of $4.89 with a volume rate of $1.24. The city’s sewer department had a deficit of $169,830.35 and they will soon be required by the Department of Natural Resources to add a disinfection plant to the waste water system that is going to cost 1.5 to 2 million dollars. Just to cover the current deficit, the city is going to be forced to raise the base rate and volume rate whether they stay with the winter month averaging or should they want to change to an actual water usage billing method. Currently a user of 5,000 gallons costs $9.78 while just to break even, the monthly rate would need to be $17.69 with the winter monthly averaging or $16.44 with the actual water usage method. Then with the new required disinfection plant by 2018, if the city were to finance the 1.5 to 2 million dollars over 20 years to build the plant, customers could see an increase of an additional $1.17 per 1,000 gallons. Grove stated state and federal agencies use the 2% of median household income “rule of thumb” when it comes to calculating the affordability of water and sewer rates for a community. In Salem, the median household income was $27,688 and that would mean using the 2% formula Grove provided, $46,15 per month would be considered affordable for 5,000 gallon of water usage and another $46.15 would also be considered affordable per month for sewer rates to accommodate 5,000 gallons of sewage volume. It will now be up to the utility committee to figure out new water and sewer rates for the city residents not only for current usage, but future usage that will allow the city to pay for these services without having to transfer money in from other departments.

The Salem Board of Alderman met Thursday night at the city hall council chambers. Alderman Hayden Powell was unable to attend. The board approved the consent agenda that indicated C.A.R.T. Tax receipts of $15,828.98, sales tax revenues from the state for January of $74,333.39, and Capital Improvement sales tax revenues for January of $37,166.64. City Administrator Ray Walden commended the street department for their efforts in clearing the snow and treating icy spots. Walden said that the Utility Committee would be bringing recommendations for rates to the Board of Alderman. He went on to say that the Park Board will be meeting Thursday at 7:00 pm at the Community Center at the Armory and that there would be a City of Salem/Dent County Dispatch workshop Tuesday at 6:00 pm at the city hall council chambers. Mayor Tune said he was glad the Utility Committee had met and encouraged the committee to make recommendations to the Board of Alderman as soon as possible. City Attorney William Camm Seay red Bill No. 3287, to create an ordinance to establish a procedure to disclose potential conflicts of interest and substantial interest for certain municipal officials. City Clerk Mary Happel noted that the ordinance was needed to meet state statutes and that there had been no complaints or inquiries about conflicts of interest. The ordinance was adopted. City Administrator Walden presented information about Missouri’s Scrape Tire Surface Grant for the Parks Department, as they would like to apply for the grant. If approved, the only cost to the city would be for labor. The request to apply was approved. The Board then went into closed session to discuss contracts and personnel.

Sports [TOP]

The Salem Tigers Boys basketball game with Willow Springs Friday was postponed due to bad weather. No makeup date has been announced. The boys will be in St. Clair Tuesday night for their final regular season game.

The Salem Lady Basketball Tigers against the St. Clair Lady Bulldogs tonight HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

Damian Jones tallied 16 points as the Vanderbilt Commodores coasted to a 76-53 victory over Missouri in an SEC tilt at Memorial Gym. Montaque Gill-Caesar led Missouri (7-20, 1-13) with 11 points and Keith Shamburger finished with nine points and eight assists. The loss was the 13th in a row for the Tigers. Missouri will host Florida Tuesday night starting at 8:00.

Blake Comeau scored twice and added one assist to lead Pittsburgh over St. Louis by a 4-2 count at Scottrade Center Saturday night. Ian Cole and Dmitrij Jaskin scored for the Blues who were coming off a 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins Friday night. Vladimir Tarasenko netted two goals while Alex Pietrangelo, Petteri Lindbohm and T.J. Oshie also connected for the Blues. The Blues will host the Montreal Canadians Tuesday night.