Chatham approves $2.6 million budget, rate, fee hikes

Chatham’s water and sewer rates and garbage fees will go up beginning July 1.

The changes come after Chatham Town Council held a public hearing Thursday night and voted 4-0 in a separate meeting to approve a proposed $2.6 million town budget for 2011-12. Council members also voted to approve the fee and rate hikes.

In-town water and sewer rates will go up 5 percent while out-of-town rates will increase 10 percent.

In-town water customers will see the rate rise from $3.40 per 1,000 gallons to $3.57 per 1,000 gallons, while in-town sewer rates will go from $4.51 to $4.74. The out-of-town water rate will jump from $5.30 to $5.83 and the sewer rate will increase almost $1, from $8.86 to $9.75.

The curbside garbage collection fee will go up for residents from $10 a month to $12 a month — or $30 a quarter to $36 per quarter. The business rate will climb from $33 a quarter to $39 a quarter — or from $11 a month to $13 a month.   

Two residents spoke out against the proposed rate and fee increases during a public hearing.

Cheryl Marling, who has lived in Chatham for six years, said the fee and rate hikes would drive retired people and young residents out of town.

“You’re going to push the elderly out and you’re going to push the young people away,” Marling told council members.

Marling, who’s from the Chicago area, said she doesn’t understand why taxpayers need to spend $10,000 for beautification, which is included in the 2011-12 budget. The town could hold a fundraiser instead of taxing people, she said.

Also, Chatham’s rates are as high as those in Lake Forest, Ill., near Chicago, Marling said.

“You’ve got to learn to start cutting,” she said.

Chatham resident Patrice Brode said now is not the time to raise the fee and rates because the economy is bad and gas prices are high. Brode, who works for the city of Danville, said she hasn’t had a raise in three years and has two children to raise, one of whom wants to go to college.

Council member Roy Byrd Jr., chairman of the town council’s finance committee, responded to residents’ comments during a separate meeting. The town has done its best to hold costs down, Byrd said.

The town has had no real estate tax increase in three or four years and rising diesel fuel expense has affected garbage collection costs, Byrd said. The town needs enough reserves in the budget to pay for repair of major breaks in water and sewer lines, he said.

“We’ve taken a real hit in the last four or five years in our water works,” Byrd said, adding that major expenditures need to be made at the water treatment plant. The budget includes a $489,000 grant from the Virginia Tobacco Commission for plant upgrades needed to meet requirements from the Virginia Department of Health, said Chatham Mayor Joe Rogers.

If not for Green Rock Correctional Center as a water and sewer customer, rates would have gone up more, Byrd said.  According to a preliminary engineering report in 2010, it would cost the town $8 million to upgrade the water and sewer lines, as well as the water plant, Rogers said. 

Cemetery plots will also increase from $500 to $750 and the town’s 21 employees will receive a 1 percent pay raise.

Crane reports for the Danville Register & Bee.