Northport will pay double the charges first anticipated

Northport Public School will pay more than double what district officials originally thought for the Northport-Leelanau Township sewer system.

At a business and work session meeting of the Northport Board of Education Thursday, May 24, superintendent Tyrus Wessell said the district originally anticipated paying $131,525 for the special assessment fee and hook-up costs to the system. The costs have since ballooned to $302,000, with most of the increase coming from higher-than-expected connection and capacity fees.

Wessell said the board’s finance and negotiations committee will meet with Leelanau Township supervisor James Neve on Monday to go over figures presented to the board. Business manager Karen Hammersley said the committee will also discuss how the district will pay for the additional cost.

In March 2006, the board set aside $150,000 to cover the district’s sewer-related costs. Hammersley said the district has $241,065.68 in its sinking fund account, but didn’t know if the committee will recommend using the money to cover the sewer system costs, or to pay for connection fees over 15 years at 2.625 percent interest.

“At this point I don’t know which way is the most cost-effective for us,” she said.

When the board set aside funding, the capacity fee was based on a base assessment of $10,100 per parcel and a capacity fee of $5,300 per Residential Equivalent Unit (REU), the amount of wastewater produced by a single-family residence.

The school was being charged 20.25 REUs ($107,325), plus a $20,200 special assessment for two parcels and a connection fee of between $4,000 and $8,000, bringing the total estimate to be between $131,525 and $135,525.

However, the board received updated figures from the joint village-township public works authority. Using a total cost of $15,950 per REU, the district is now looking at a connection fee of $322,987.50. By subtracting $20,200 from the special assessment on the two school building parcels, the fee drops to $302,787.50.

The public works authority is including the $10,100 per parcel special assessment in the connection fee on a recommendation from the joint public works authority’s financial consultants. Leelanau Township Supervisor James Neve said the initial calculations were put together by the engineering firm hired by the village and township.

Neve said the financial consultant, the firm of Bendzinski and Longrey of Detroit, told authority members that if a parcel has more then one REU assessed to it, the actual use is more intense than a normal single family home. “They reasoned the costs for a use like the school are way disproportionate in comparison to a single family home,” he said.

While the estimated costs for each user on the system were expected to go up from original estimates, Neve said the increase for both the school and the Northport Highlands project are difficult issues to handle.

“It’s regrettable that the costs went up so much for the bigger users,” Neve said.

Northport School will also have yearly maintenance and operations costs of $11,907 based on a monthly fee of $49 per REU, up from $42, plus an additional fee of $5 to $6 per 1,000 gallons of waste above 60,000 gallons.

The school building produces approximately 450,000 gallons of wastewater per year, based on the amount of water used.