In the past few days, Village Service Department and Administrative employees
have fielded inquiries about the Village’s quarterly sewer maintenance fee. This
correspondence is intended to provide public information and clarification in response to
those inquiries.
The Village sewer fee ordinance was first enacted in 1972. The Village Mayor
does not have the sole authority to increase, decrease, or eliminate the sewer fees. The
final authority to take action to amend any ordinance rests in the hands of the Village
Council. A significant portion of the Village sewer system is over fifty years old and
becomes more expensive to maintain each year. The quarterly sewer maintenance fee
provides only a portion of the funds the Village needs annually for constructing,
reconstructing, repairing, and maintaining the Village’s sewers; repairing and replacing
sewer catch basins; maintaining and servicing a Village pump station; and procuring
and maintaining the vehicles and equipment necessary to film, jet, and clean the sewer
system to help alleviate back-ups, overflows, and costly future repairs.
In the absence of the sewer maintenance fee, all of the funds for the above
projects and maintenance work would have to come from the Village’s General Fund,
which would reduce the funds available each year for other important and necessary
Village infrastructure and maintenance projects such as reconstruction and
maintenance of the Village roads, maintenance and improvements to the Village parks,
and the provision of services to the residents.
Since 2001, the Village quarterly residential sewer maintenance fee has been
increased only once. In 2011, the residential fee was increased by $4.40 per household
per year. That increase is just a small fraction of the percentage by which other utility
costs have increased over that 18 year period. No quarterly sewer maintenance fee
increases have been enacted by the Village since 2011, and no Village residences have
been assessed for the construction, reconstruction, or repair of sewers or catch basins
in front of their properties during the past 18 years.
I hope this correspondence answers the recent questions you have posed to
Village employees and officials. If you have any additional questions or concerns
regarding the Village quarterly sewer maintenance fee, please contact the Service
Department, Law Department, or Mayor and Council.
Village of Northfield
10455 Northfield Road
Northfield, Ohio 44067
330.467.7130
