Photo by Jon Anderson
Inverness sewer plant 5
Mike McCary, a supervisor with Clearwater Solutions, which operates Hoover's two sewer plants in Inverness and Riverchase, talks to engineering students from the University of Alabama at Birmingham on a tour of the Inverness wastewater treatment plant on Thursday, March 1, 2018.
The city of Hoover on Thursday is holding a public meeting in Riverchase to discuss potential rate increases and long-term needs for the city’s sewer system.
Hoover’s sewer system, which serves about 4,500 residential customers and 200 commercial customers in the Riverchase, Inverness and Southlake communities, has not been taking in enough revenue to provide long-term support for the system’s future, city officials say.
Sewer rates have not increased since 2004 but need to be raised to keep the system functioning properly, City Administrator Allan Rice said.
Revenues are strong enough to pay for current operations, pay off debt obligations and provide positive cash flows, but the sewer system has had negative retained earnings since 2008, Chief Financial Officer Melinda Lopez said.
Rice in March said city officials needed to decide if the City Council should raise rates itself, sell the system to another public utility that would raise rates or form a separate sewer board that could raise rates or sell to a private company that would do so.
Tonight, Mayor Frank Brocato said he emphatically opposes the sale of Hoover's sewer system to another operator and does not see the need for the formation of a separate sewer board to oversee the operation of the system. He wants the city to maintain control of it, he said.
However, city leaders must figure out how they can fund needed capital projects for the sewer system, Brocato said.
At Thursday night’s meeting, city officials will present findings from an engineering study by Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood that indicates the Hoover sewer system has $7.23 million in capital projects needed in the next five years.
City officials also will share a rate study done by utility consultant Jackson Thornton, which indicated Hoover’s sewer system needs about $6.5 million in revenue per year to get back on track and is currently $2.3 million short of that.
City leaders want to explain the situation directly to residents, answer questions and take comments about what people believe the city should do, Rice said.
Thursday’s meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Riverchase Country Club at 2000 Club Road. It is open to the public, not just people served by the sewer system, Rice said. A second meeting is planned in Inverness in July, he said.
