Despite Township's Objections MRRSA Passes Budget

Over the past few months the Council has worked to control any potential changes residents would see in their sewer bill. In recent weeks that has included urging the members of the Manasquan River Regional Sewerage Authority () to vote against the proposed budget.

On Wednesday night those efforts were defeated as the authority passed its budget with only the two Howell representatives voting against the measure. 

During the meeting the members of the authority, which includes representatives from Farmingdale, Freehold Township, Freehold Borough and Wall discussed several key issues in regards to the budget. That included the flow rates for each town, the authority's involvement with the Ocean County Utility Authority and future issues that could help the ratepayers in the future. 

Peter Kocsik, the engineer for the authority, said there are four factors that are looked at when they look at flows for each of the five towns. They include historical flow data, which has been tracked over the past few years, rain fall and its impact on wastewater flow and approved developments in each of the member areas. 

Kocsik said throughout the area there are 65 developments in various phases of construction, which play a role in their respective towns, flow rates. These projects will have 300 million gallons of estimated flow projection. That number is minimal compared to the projected flow rate the authority had for 2011 which was more than two billion gallons for the five towns.

Through three quarters of the year's measurements Kocsik said there will be approximately two billion six hundred and twenty million gallons of flow. That number is expected to drop slightly in 2012 according to Kocsik. The engineer also broke down the estimates of how that flow would be broken down among the five towns. 

Of all the towns, Freehold Township's estimate was the highest at one billion gallons, followed closely by Howell at 935 million gallons. Freehold Borough is third with 570 million gallons, while Farmingdale is expected to have 60 million gallons in flow. Wall Township splits its services between MRRSA and the Brick Township MUA with an estimated 35 million gallons to flow through the regional authority's pipes. 

The authority has seen its rates rise on an annual basis at various amounts. That comes following a time between 1997 and 2008 when there were no increases to the ratepayers. 

When the meeting was open to the public, Howell Deputy Mayor William Gotto tried one last time to express the feelings of his fellow council members to avoid the rate increase.

Gotto said earlier in the year a meeting was held at town hall with representatives from the township and the authority. Looking at the development schedule, Gotto said the plan the authority had for the township was "grossly out of whack." He wanted to make sure that since that time the plans had been updated and was assured that they had been.

The deputy mayor also got an update from the authority on the status of insurance claims they are making in regards to damage to the system from storms this year. The applications have got both to FEMA and the authority's private insurance company. While they are waiting to hear on the status of those claims, they will still need to pay for the required repairs according to Jerome Cevetello Jr. the authority's executive director.

Councilman Juan Malave also addressed the authority. Having only been sworn in the night before, Malave also wanted to object to the budget and what he called "an outrageous rate increase." With the township taking a nine percent increase last year and a six percent increase this year, Malave said "In my opinion you can no longer continue to pass these outrageous increases and expect us to just go along with the flow," and expect the municipalities to "take it quietly."

Malave, as he had done earlier in the day with representatives from New Jersey American Water reminded the members of the authority that even small increases can have a big impact on residents on a fixed income. "These are tough economic times," he said. "When you're on a fixed income, reduced income or no income at all, a rate increase of this magnitude will without a doubt devastate some families in our community."

Gotto concluded by saying, "I'm strongly asking you to take a look at your structure and how you're coming up with your budget. It is not acceptable in terms of the other rates that we're also applying within our municipality." Even with the township aiming for a zero percent tax increase, Gotto said the proposed sewer rates and the water rate going up, "whether the reasons are excusable or not, I'm just not hearing anything that I can go back to our taxpayers slash rate payers and explain to them that this entity has done everything they can on behalf of our residents."

In the end all but the two Howell representatives in attendance voted in favor of the budget. Both members of the authority from Farmingdale were absent for the meeting.

After the meeting Gotto said he was disappointed by the results. "I think at the end of the day it's not going to work in our taxpayer's pocket, but I think you're starting to see the cultural change in the thought process amongst the small agencies that the previous ways of doing things are no longer acceptable," he said. "If we weren't able to get to that point for the 2012 budget, I'm optimistic that we're going to see strong pushes to have better improvements in future budgets."

Jesse Tantillo, one of the representatives for the township was in an interesting position voting in the minority against the budget. "I think the Howell town council had a few valid points. At the same time, I think other than the points of the salaries I think we've done almost everything that we could to try to keep costs down during the past couple of years."

Having been called to speak in front of the council several times over the past few months, Tantillo said he had tried to deliver the desired messages to the sewer authority. "We cannot have a deficit in our budget. We have to have a balanced budget," he said.

Tantillo added, "As a lot of our members said, we only have limited ways to raise revenues and if we don't have those connection fees we don't have interest off of investments and the only other way we have to get these revenues is to go back to the municipalities."

With the sewer authority's increases and the water company also looking for , Howell residents could be looking at up to a 21 percent increase combined between the two. Gotto said the work for the council was not done. "We're going to keep doing what we're doing. We are struggling and have become successful with working in reducing our municipal rate structure as much as we can. That's not going to change. I can't say we're going to do it any harder or any less but we're going to keep our eye on the ball and keep working on behalf of our residents."