City Council raises Water Connection Fee, Lowers Sewer Connection Fee

City Council approved an ordinance Monday raising the rates homeowners and developers pay for water area connections.

Annexation fees were also increased to a $1,000 minimum.

 The legislation increased the water area connection charge to $10,500 per equivalent residential unit, a 25 percent increase from the previous charge of $8,400.

The sanitary sewer area connection charge was modified from $6,000 to $5,400, a $600 reduction.

City Manager Doug Miller said Paul Muddiman, a local engineer who often appears before the planning board and City Council recommended via email the terms “equivalent” be added to the language of the water and sewer area connection fee revisions.

Some, who could not attend the meeting, sent concerns that certain sections of the ordinance give Miller too much power.

For example, the ordinance states that “the City Manager may establish reasonable fees for materials or services not described in this chapter.”

“The subjective areas give us leeway,” Miller said.

Councilwoman Sandra Landbeck said the ordinance only allows Miller to act on the city’s behalf as he administers day-to-day operations.

“I really don’t think we’re doing anything we shouldn’t be doing,” Landbeck said. “We are the ones who oversee the big picture.”

In other business:

Council responded to a letter that Mayor Michael E. Bennett said was sent in by Presbyterian Home on March 23 regarding the company’s decision not to build the Village at Carsins Run in Aberdeen.

Delegate Mary-Dulany James had sponsored legislation that would have given Harford County a hotel tax, but withdrew the measure after vehement opposition to a 15-year tax exemption for the developer that was also part of the House of Delegates bill.

The mayor said the council always supported the project in concept.

 “The thing that we didn’t support was full tax relief for the project,” Bennett said.

Councilwoman Ruth Ann Young commended all those who worked for the hotel tax.

Councilwoman Ruth Elliott said Presbyterian Home almost got the tax exemption.

“If at the 11th hour, we hadn’t got hold of what they were trying to do, the taxpayers would be paying for Presbyterian Home,” Elliott said.

Also in other business: City Clerk Monica A. Correl was recognized for becoming a certified municipal clerk, an accomplishment that most who hold her job title never pursue.

There are only 16 certified municipal clerks in the state and only 4,484 in the country.

 “This is a really big deal,” Bennett said.“It’s a lot of time and effort on her part.”