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City water, sewer rates among area’s lowest

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XENIA — The City of Xenia is among the lowest in southwest Ohio for water and sewer rates.

According to the annual survey done by the City of Oakwood, Xenia ranks 27th out of 63 municipalities that responded. The combined rate of $242.40 — based on 22,500 gallons in a three-month period — is second only to Fairborn ($240.30) in Greene County. Counting only Greene and Montgomery counties, Xenia is 12th out of 26 municipalities.

“We are still very competitive,” Finance Director Mark Bazelak said. “We have done a good job over the years of controlling costs. We have a rate model that looks out into the future in terms of the capital plan that kind of looks at what’s out there that needs to be done. It kind of plans and looks at the rates that would be needed to cover those. We’ve been mindful in the citizens’ ability to absorb higher than normal water and sewer rate increases.”

This year, tank painting dictated a 14 percent water and 3 percent sewer rate increase. In 2018, when the city loses the county water contract, the rates will again increase at the same percentage. Despite that, Xenia will still be lower than the current average, assuming nothing changes with other municipalities, Bazelak said, adding that others will likely see increases as well.

” … that does speak to our review every year,” Bazelak said. “We think we’ve been fairly diligent of that, respective of not raising the rates. Only when we need to.”

The highest rate reported was $491.91 by Miami County, which purchases its water from Troy. Union, located mostly in northern Montgomery County, was the lowest at $148.60. The mean was $261.73. Other Greene County entities listed were: Bellbrook (which has its own water but uses county sewer) at $274.82; Greene County and Beavercreek and Cedarville (from Greene County) at $299.02 and Yellow Springs at $444.83.

Bazelak
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2017/05/web1_Bazelak.jpgBazelak

By Scott Halasz

[email protected]

Contact Scott Halasz at 937-502-4507.