Equal Cost for Equal Water
By Erica Erwin
Erie Water Works’ current offer to take over Millcreek’s public water system would guarantee that all Millcreek residents pay the same for water throughout the length of a proposed 30-year lease.
Millcreek Township Supervisor Brian McGrath said Friday that Erie Water Works Chief Executive Paul Vojtek assured him that all township customers will pay the same rates for the full term of the lease.
“That was a key question,” McGrath said after a two-hour closed-door meeting between township supervisors and Vojtek to discuss the proposal. “We didn’t want to see rates equivalent for a year or two and then somehow be more than what the rest of the ratepayers were paying.”
The agreement would transfer about 7,000 Millcreek Water Authority customers to accounts at Erie Water Works. Those customers now pay 20 to 50 percent more, on average, than about 10,000 Millcreek customers already served by the Erie system.
Under the proposal, Erie Water Works would not make any lease payments to Millcreek. It would operate and maintain the Millcreek system as a “separate project,” with separate accounts and records for assets and liabilities, receipts and revenues, operating expenses and debt repayments.
Jim Meyers, a founding member of Cheaper Cleaner Water, a citizens task force that supports the takeover bid, applauded Vojtek’s assurances.
“This needs to be done, not only to help the 6,000-plus households who are paying more, but also for future growth in the area,” Meyers said.
Price parity wasn’t the only issue addressed during Friday’s meeting.
Millcreek Supervisor Larry Curtis said the supervisors asked Vojtek “operational” and financial questions, and what it would mean for the system to be treated as a separate project. He declined to elaborate.
“We got a lot of our questions answered,” he said. “It was a very positive meeting.”
The cost of water is a major issue in the Millcreek supervisors race, in which Curtis is vying for a second six-year term. He and three other candidates in the May 19 primary — County Controller Sue Weber, businessman Mike Dougherty and retired Millcreek police Lt. Richard Figaski — have all campaigned on cheaper water at the same rate for all Millcreek residents.
Vojtek left Friday’s meeting encouraged.
“It was good to meet face to face because they did have a lot of questions, and I was able to address them,” he said. “I’ll report back to my board in the committee meetings coming up next week and the board meeting the following week, and we’ll proceed from there.”
Any future action is subject to the approval of the Erie City Water Authority, the board that makes the decisions about the system, he said.
Vojtek had said that if Erie were to take over Millcreek’s system, the sides would have to figure out who would pay for about $2 million in upgrades, including electrical improvements to some pump stations, relining of some water tanks and some security improvements.
The proposal suggests the money for those capital improvements could come from the Millcreek water system’s cash on hand, through a quarterly surcharge on customers’ bills, or a combination of both.
Those topics weren’t discussed Friday, Vojtek said.
“We didn’t get down to that level,” he said. “That will come out as we proceed forward.”