At its rescheduled monthly meeting last Thursday, March 27, the Suttons Bay Village Council decided to amend a fee schedule for village water and sewer service.

The new fee schedule will reduce the monthly “capital charge” for most residential users from $30.75 to $28.75 per month.

Before last year, there was no “capital charge,” with users paying only a “ready-to-serve” charge and a per-gallon fee. However, the need to pay for a new wastewater treatment plant and other infrastucture led the village council to raise fees substantially last year.

Residents subsequently complained that the new charges were unfair to the owners of single family homes. An amended fee schedule adopted last week will reduce charges for the average residential property owner by about $2 per month. The fee schedule also changes a formula for the owners of businesses and multi-family residences based on the physical size of connections to the system.

The new fee schedule is “revenue neutral,” but is “more fair to more village water and sewer users,” according to village president Larry Mawby. Serving as interim village manager, Mawby created and proposed the fee schedule amendment.

Mawby had presented a version of the fee schedule amendment to the Village Council in February, but was directed to revise it and present a new proposal in March.

The new fee schedule amendment was adopted by the Village Council in a 7-0 vote last week. The council’s regular monthly meeting had been rescheduled to accommodate an out-of-town business trip by Mawby earlier in March.

In other business at last week’s meeting, the Suttons Bay Village Council:

• Decided to hire a new auditing firm to conduct an annual audit of village finances for the fiscal year that ended Dec. 31, 2007.

A $7,800 contract for auditing services was awarded to the Wilson-Ward accounting firm of Interlochen. An accounting firm used previously by the village government, Rehman-Robson, had offered a one-year price of $23,000.

• Heard from Kathy Finch of the village Planning Commission about a new grant funding opportunity for the village’s joint effort with Suttons Bay Township to draft a new land use master plan. Finch explained that the village and township had already received grant funding from the state that was earmarked only for “joint” efforts among municipalities; and planners hoped to apply for additional grant funding for joint projects through the Land Information Access Association.