Latrobe Municipal Authority hikes rates, asks customers for voluntary water conservation

Latrobe Municipal Authority customers will see a 50-cent hike in usage and debt service rates beginning Saturday and increases in sewage rates two months later.

The authority meanwhile is asking customers to voluntarily conserve water since drought conditions have left levels below normal in its reservoir. A recent spate of waterline breaks hasn’t helped matters.

“We‘ve fixed 37 leaks since Jan. 8,” authority manager Terri Hauser said. “In the small service area of Latrobe, that’s a decent amount of leaks.”

The monthly debt service rate for water customers will increase from $6 to $6.50, according to Hauser. She said the hike was triggered by a scheduled jump in the interest rate on a state PennVEST (Pennsylvania Infrastructure Authority) loan the municipal authority took out five years ago for a waterline project that coincided with sidewalk and street crossing improvements in downtown Latrobe.

Monthly water usage rates per 1,000 gallons will go up from $2.25 to $2.85 for residential customers, from $3.25 to $3.75 for nonresidential customers.

She said the usage fee hike should help to cover rising costs for chemicals and other supplies.

“We want to start building up some funds for infrastructure improvements,” Hauser added. “We’re hoping to do some line replacements.”

Though the increased fees will kick in on Saturday, it will take some time before they show up on the authority’s quarterly billing.

A monthly administrative fee for water customers will remain at $7.50. Hauser said.

The Latrobe authority, effective April 1, will charge a new monthly debt service fee of $1.15 for all those whose wastewater is sent to the authority’s treatment plant, including customers in Youngstown Borough.

Hauser said that increase will help repay a separate PennVEST loan for concrete repairs and electrical upgrades at the Latrobe sewage treatment plant.

The fee will be newly billed to the neighboring Derry Township Municipal Authority and Unity Township Municipal Authority, based on the portion of their customers who have sewage directed to the Latrobe plant.

For the Latrobe authority’s direct customers, the fee will be added to an existing monthly debt service rate, bumping it from $7.50 to $8.65.

Latrobe Municipal Authority monthly sewage usage rates additionally will see a 50-cent increase — from $3.50 per thousand gallons to $4 for residential customers and from $4 to $4.50 for non-residential customers.

Manager Doug Pike said the Unity authority will absorb the extra cost and has no plan to raise rates for its sewage customers.

The Latrobe hikes will be passed along as sewage rate increases affecting about 3,100 customers of the Derry Township authority, according to Owen Meyer, manager of the authority.

Beginning in April, he said, minimum monthly sewage fees, based on 3,000 gallons usage, will rise from $38 to $40.65 for residential customers and from $39.50 to $42.15 for 152 commercial customers.

Hauser said the Latrobe authority is asking its customers to control their water use because its reservoir is filled to only about 40% of the normal level. A phone message asking for water conservation went out to customers on Monday.

“We need to conserve water voluntarily right now,” she said. “It’s basically the dry summer we went through. The reservoir just hasn’t had a chance to recover.

“Many people have the false impression that, because it snowed some this winter, the reservoir is filling up — or even full. Unfortunately, that is not the case and the water level continues to drop.”

The recent waterline breaks have only added to the problem.

Hauser said voluntarily cutting back on water use now could help the authority avoid a potential mandatory conservation notice — something she said could happen if the reservoir level falls further.