SEWER RATES SOAR

At the June 1, 2010 meeting of the Oldham County Fiscal Court the Court approved a 22.9% increase in sewer rates for all customers of the Oldham County Sewer District (OCSD). The sewer district indicated that the ratepayers could expect additional raises in the next three years to bring the total increase to approximately 45%.

These rate increases will allow the OCSD to obtain 2.5 million dollars in loans. Those loans will allow the district to make changes that will allow two new subdivisions, Buckner Crossings and Quail Creek, to immediately connect to sewers and thereby begin construction. The district stated that they needed the additional customers in order to have additional income to repay their loan.

Now the irony of that claim is that the district stated yesterday that the bad economy has caused many homes to go in foreclosure, which in turns reduces the income of the district. If the economy is that bad, what made the sewer district believe that the new subdivisions will be able to sell their homes in the near future? This question was raised by Magistrate Iva Davis, and actually the representative of the sewer district agreed with her but still stated that they would receive additional income. I believe that this was done to help future development as much as any other reason. Once again, they win.

Consideration is being given to consolidating the OCSD with the recently formed Stormwater District. That will be a bad move. The Fiscal Court should just eliminate both districts and take over the management of both. Everyone seems to agree that the OCSD has had poor management in the past, however, the Fiscal Court seems to want to stay with the same concept.

My prediction is that eventually all of the residents of the county will be asked to repay the loans of the OCSD event though only about 25% of the households in the county are customers of the OCSD. The OCSD must have additional money to provide the infrastructure for future development and the developers will continue to refuse to pay for the infrastructure even though they benefit from it the most.