Monday, July 23, 2012

For Immediate Release from Susan Morgans, PIO

Contact: Susan Morgans, PIO
412-343-3780FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sewage to be billed separately from water starting in September
MT. LEBANON—For more than a decade, Mt. Lebanon residents have been paying for their water and sanitary sewer usage together in one bill sent from Pennsylvania American Water Co. But starting this fall, the water company will discontinue billing for sewage nationwide.
Beginning September 1, Mt. Lebanon residents will receive their sewage bills from Jordan Tax Service. It is critical to note this is not a new fee; the water bill will decrease by the amount of the sewage bill and the sewage bill will instead come monthly from Jordan. It will continue to follow the formula set by the municipality and ALCOSAN based on household water consumption. Residents should also not confuse this bill with the storm water bill sent quarterly from Jordan. That fee also will be unchanged.
"It wasn’t a choice," says Assistant Municipal Manager/Finance Director Marcia Taylor. "Pennsylvania American notified us late last fall that they would be changing it and gave us a drop dead date." Mt. Lebanon evaluated collecting the fee in-house in conjunction with other municipalities but it was too expensive and the turnaround time was too tight for it to be feasible. "We will continue to investigate that option."
In addition to mailing the bill to Jordan, residents may pay the sewage bill in person during normal business hours at the Customer Service Center in the Municipal Building, 710 Washington Road. By October, Jordan hopes to provide electronic billing options.


http://mtlebanon.org/DocumentCenter/View/8971

14 comments:

Anonanon said...

That'll work really well when ALCOSAN announces that due to upgrades to their system (which I beleive they've started) that those charges to residents will double or triple. Go ahead, just throw it on the pile. I'll be working for free pretty soon. But hey, I'll have a pretty sweet turf to sleep on when I'm homeless.

Anonymous said...

I've been paying an additional $3/month Administrative fee in the PAWC water bill for the ALCOSAN collection charges for under 2,000 gal/month water consumption...what will the Jordan fee be ?

Anonymous said...

Curious, your sewage bill has always been based on water consumption, I believe.
So dos this mean that PAWC is giving Jordan information about my personal water use?

Anonymous said...

You're right on the money, 12:20. There are big bucks to be made in these municipal sewer upgrades and we all know who will be paying for them.

Are they all really needed? Who knows!

Jack Mulliken said...

If only we had someone at PA American water we could talk to.... hmmmmmm....

Are we using a 3rd party for tax collector because it's pretty evident that few if any people in Mt Lebanon's government can do math or keep track of things like parking fines paid or maintenance fees paid? You'd think our schools would be able to produce someone who could count for as much money as they go through each year. Maybe they could just pretend it's a baseball game score. They seem interested in that sort of thing.

Anonymous said...

Gee, if I don't pay my sewage bill can Jordan put a lien on my dirty water? LOL

If I pay PAWC they can't turn my water service off. What's Jordan going to do close off my sewer?

Lebo Citizens said...

I wonder why we will be able to pay our sewage bill at Customer Service, but we can't pay our stormwater fee there. Both are going to Jordan Tax Service. Why does Marcia Taylor say that they evaluated paying in-house, but it was too expensive and then the very next paragraph says something about how we CAN pay in-house? Will we be paying twice for that service?
Elaine

Jack Mulliken said...

Elaine, I was thinking the same thing.

With our propensity for math irregularities, I'm wondering if this dual-pay offering will create more problems?

Anonymous said...

What happens if you don't pay it?
Do they turn a valve in the street causing your toilets to back up?
My sanitary sewer backed up Friday even though I paid both the Alcosan fee and the new rain tax.
What do we get for our money?

Anonymous said...

At least if I pay at the municipality desk I can skip out feeding the parking meters.

Anonymous said...

Elaine,

We all know government is all about double-speak, and "on one hand, but on the other hand" to cover their collective a-s, and be able to put blame and responsibility on everyone and everything else but them.

Anonymous said...

That and by splitting up one huge bill into two smaller bills will make the pending increases seem smaller.

Anonymous said...

Re stormwater fee, it sounds to me simply that we make more money having Jordan handle the fee and so prefer it, but since among any 35,000 people there are always a few who insist on being contrary it's nicer and easier just to let them feel special. Corralling those last few into the system is more work than it's worth. Not that anyone here would kick and fuss like that. We're above that.

Anonymous said...

We never know what will come from the PIO's comic book but maybe Jordan should collect the athletic registration fees for the deadbeat YSA field maintenance. Then the district finance office would not have so many answers to the same RTK question about YSA fees If the parents don't pay the bill the kids don't play sports. Field problem solved. No bond issue needed.