• $1.9 million in revenue.

• Base fee of $30 for first 2,900 square feet of water-impervious surface.

• 4.4 cents per square foot after that.

Estimated annual charges

• Single-family homes: $30

• City of Lewiston: $146,473

• Wal-Mart (distribution center): $93,198

• Maine Turnpike Authority: $85,752

• Bates College: $52,571

• St. Mary’s Hospital: $27,371

• Saints Peter and Paul Basilica: $3,509

• Trinity Episcopal Church: $141

Source: City of Lewiston, office of the City Administrator

Lewiston
Everybody pays storm sewer fee under plan

LEWISTON – Everybody should pay a storm water fee, according to City Administrator Jim Bennett.

That includes the city, schools, the Colisee and the Maine Turnpike Authority.

Bennett said that’s the only way to make the proposed fee fair and defensible in court.

“I believe this will be litigated,” Bennett told city councilors at an evening workshop meeting Tuesday. “However, I feel we are on solid ground in creating a storm water utility. The problem comes in how you adapt the fee to different payers. If you discriminate, it becomes viewed as a tax – not a utility.”

Revenues from the fee would be used to pay for and maintain Lewiston’s storm water system. That would include street cleaning, culvert work and ditch maintenance as well as storm water separation projects.

The City Council adopted the plan this spring as part of its budget deliberations, cutting $1.6 million from the spending plan but leaving the details to be determined.

Tuesday, Bennett and his staff offered their take on the details. He hopes to bring it back before councilors once again this month and have it settled in September. The first bills would be mailed in October.

According to Bennett, the city would charge a flat fee of $30 for the first 2,900 square feet of water-impervious surfaces. That would include driveways, sidewalks, parking lots and roofs.

The 2,900 square feet would cover most single-family homes. Bigger properties with more flat spaces would pay more, at a rate of 4.4 cents per square foot.

“The idea is that if have more impervious surfaces, you are causing more water to run off into the city system of roads, drains, canals and ditches,” Bennett said.

The fee would generate an estimated $124,671 in new revenue from tax-exempt organizations. Those property owners don’t pay taxes to the city.

In all, the fee would generate $1.6 million, money to pay for operations, maintenance and debt – replacing the money cut out of the budget. The rest would be used to pay for start up costs for the utility and to pay for credits for property owners that create water retention or run-off systems.

That’s one of the policy questions councilors need to settle on next, Bennett said. Councilors need to decide if they will reward property owners that keep run-off out of the city sewers and whether the amount being charged is fair.

Councilors will take up the plan at another workshop meeting later this month, Bennett said.